Richard Shaw

Artists-Balancing-Act-ceramic-11 — “Artist’s Balancing Act”
Ceramic
10 ¼” x 9 ½” x 7 ½”
2015

“Artist’s Balancing Act”
Ceramic
10 ¼” x 9 ½” x 7 ½”
2015

Richard Shaw 8 view C — “Sitting Figure with Abalone Shell”
Ceramic
14” x 13” x 9”
2011

Richard Shaw 4 view D — “Lookout Tower”, Ceramic, 17” x 5” x 9 ¾”, 2003

Richard Shaw 6 view B — “Political Morals and Values”
Ceramic
11” x 8” x 8 ¾”
2015

Richard Shaw 4 view B — “Lookout Tower”
Ceramic
17” x 5” x 9 ¾”
2003

Richard Shaw 6 view C — “Political Morals and Values”
Ceramic
11” x 8” x 8 ¾”
2015

Richard Shaw 1 view C — “Book Jar with Saucer and Cards”
Ceramic
2 ¾” x 10” x 7 ¾
2012

Richard Shaw 3 view B — “Book Cover with Queen of Spades”
Ceramic
10 ¾” x 7 ½” x ¼”
1998

Richard Shaw 1 view B — “Book Jar with Saucer and Cards”
Ceramic
2 ¾” x 10” x 7 ¾”
2012

Richard Shaw 3 view A — “Book Cover with Queen of Spades”
Ceramic
10 ¾” x 7 ½” x ¼”
1998

Richard Shaw 7 view B — “Man with Pitcher”
Ceramic
16 ½” x 7” x 9”
2013

Richard Shaw 2 view B — “Pin Cushion Jar with Cigar Box and Book”
Ceramic
7 ¼” x 9 ¼” x 10 ½”
2009

Richard Shaw 7 view A — “Man with Pitcher”
Ceramic
16 ½” x 7” x 9”
2013

Richard Shaw 2 view A — “Pin Cushion Jar with Cigar Box and Book”
Ceramic
7 ¼” x 9 ¼” x 10 ½”
2009

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For availability and pricing please contact the gallery.

Artist Statement

I try to stand back and be the absent arranger, creating a poem about a person using humor, irony, and elegance. Sometimes the subject is actually me, as in the watercolor box jars, where I reference my role as the artist, using images from my sketchbooks.

The human aspect of the still life or assemblage acts as a person memorializing their identity using the objects from their personal narrative. The narrative itself reveals their tastes, pastimes, intellectual pursuits, sins, habits good and bad, obsessions, etc.

Identifying as another person in the arrangement of objects allows me the freedom to make unconscious decisions and to act spontaneously, to experiment and take chances, and to let the conflict of self-imposed rules go.

Biography

rick shaw In the world of contemporary ceramics, Richard Shaw is the master of trompe-l’oeil sculpture. He has developed an astonishing array of techniques, including perfectly cast porcelain objects and overglaze transfer decals. By combining the commonplace with the whimsical, the humorous with the mundane, Shaw captures the poetic and the surreal with the sensibility of a comedian. Shaw is one of the most respected and collected artists in contemporary ceramics. He came out of the San Francisco Bay Area art scene in the late 1960’s and he continues to add to his skills and appropriate from mass culture. He has developed a vocabulary of found objects that form intimate still life sculptures, complex figures, and personally referential assemblages. He brings life to the detritus of the studio, as a cartoonist animates the page.