April 9 – May 25

Visual representations of women can agitate for a cultural shift. Having spent three decades creating paintings that delve into the intricacies of female identity, Sharon Shapiro’s work chronicles her multi-faceted experiences of growing up in the American South. Through this lens, she examines the profound impact that cultural perceptions and regional conventions play in shaping feminine subjectivity.

No Man’s Land features a variety of Shapiro’s recent large-scale paintings and collages. Captivated by the tensions and aspirations that arise in adolescence and continue in adulthood, the artist first photographs women in various poses and staged scenarios. She collages these figures into disparate landscapes which are then rephotographed or used as the basis for her paintings.

Shapiro’s color palette is dominated by vivid hues and neon colors that gained popularity in the 1980s, coinciding with her formative years. These colors serve as potent conveyors of meaning. Frequently utilizing hot pinks and reds, Shapiro draws on their commercialized associations with femininity and feminism. She also employs these "hot" colors to draw attention to critical environmental situations affecting us all: deep red weather maps, raging forest fires, and record-setting heat waves. These recent paintings subtly merge the artist’s concerns for personal agency with environmental urgency. The complex and layered representations of women ask for a reevaluation of existing systems and the attitudes they engender.

Learn more about the artist: sharonshapiro.com