Michael Shaw is a visual artist whose work focuses on income inequality and the wealth divide. He works primarily with cyanotypes, which provide a limited structure to work within and against, mirroring the limitations of affordable living. His method requires a dense web of masking tape in varying widths, rips and thicknesses – a painstaking, brick-by-brick process that honors the culturally humble structures of the neighborhoods he seeks to protect. In art historical terms, Shaw depicts modern representations of the ‘home of the serf’ who exists in the murky class system of the U.S.
MICHAEL SHAW C.V.
2011- present: Creator/host of The Conversation Art Podcast
EXHIBITIONS
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Projecting Possibilities, projection at the Helms Design Center, Culver City
2005 Groundwork, Los Angeles, CA
TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2018 “Superimposed,” Eastside International, Los Angeles, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 “Meshuganah,” (upcoming), A Very Serious Gallery, Chicago, IL
2023 Nomad II, Torrance Art Museum pop-up, Torrance, CA
2023 Fall Fundraiser, Rory Devine Fine Art
2023 “South LA is Not For Sale,” Community Coalition, Los Angeles, CA
2023 “Sociality” at LA Tate Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2022 The Auction Collective, benefit auction for SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition: It’s My House!, online auction
2022 “It’s My House!,” Porch Gallery, Ojai, CA
2020 LSH CoLAB, group show, Hollywood, CA
2019 “Skill Tree,” Honey Ramka gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017 “Like Oxygen,” Mountain gallery, Brooklyn, NY – http://mountain.xhbtr.com/like-oxygen
2016-17 PØST, Fundraising Auction, Los Angeles, CA
2014 “Exquisite Corpse,” MASS Gallery, Austin, TX
2014 “Object Object!!” Helmuth Projects, San Diego, CA
2009 Fluxco gallery, Los Angeles “Inadvertent Rapture,” Los Angeles, CA
2007 Sabina Lee gallery, Los Angeles, CA Holiday group show
2007 Fluxco gallery, Los Angeles, CA “Fovea,” group show
2007 Don O’Melveney Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “PlayItGround,” group show
2000 Eyewash, Brooklyn, NY “Selections”
1999 Eyewash, Brooklyn, NY Offbeat- Humor in Life and art
1997 Alleged, New York, NY
1996 Marymount Manhattan College, New York, NY ‘Pieces of Eight’
1995 Black + Herron Space, New York, NY ‘Ooze’
CURATED
2017 “Focus Group,” (curated) Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles CA – (http://www.cjamesgallery.com/show-detail/focus-group)
2015 Antioch University Los Angeles library gallery, Katrina Umber
2015 Antioch University Los Angeles library gallery Terence Hannum
2014 Antioch University Los Angeles library gallery: Aaron Morse
2009 Fluxco gallery, Los Angeles “Inadvertent Rapture,” Los Angeles, CA
AWARDS, RESIDENCIES & PUBLICATIONS
2023 Culver Arts, Culver City Arts Foundation Grant
2023 Ellsworth Artist Residency Program, Art Share L.A. (Fall residency)
2022 Space on Space magazine, “Urban Theater in Plain Site”
2022 Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grant
2022 Puffin Grant, for project “Housing’s Final Frontier”
2021 Center for Cultural Innovation, Quick Grant
2021 Center for Artistic Activism, Unstoppable Voters Workshop
2021 Center for Artistic Activism, Supercorsa workshop
2021 Center for Artistic Activism, Supercorsa workshop; Center for Artistic Activism, Unstoppable Voters Workshop
Hunter College, New Student Award
EDUCATION
Hunter College, City University of New York MFA
U.C. Los Angeles BA
Born in Baltimore, Maryland
