statement

In these large scale drawings, I am formally exploring the visual tensions between representation and abstraction, as my observed subjects, masses of black plastic trash bags, piles of cockroaches and sculptures of diapers invoke the sensibility of a Rorschach test for viewers to contemplate (pareidolia – seeing order in randomness). On a conceptual level, it cannot be denied that these subjects also have in common connotations of disposability, decay and, most notably, repulsion, especially for me, as they are manifestations of personal fears and anxieties. The drawings themselves are meticulously rendered to convey the opposite, to be objects that are sumptuous and attractive for the audience, and the act of rendering those things in such scale and detail is a form of individual catharsis. The inherent contrasts between light / dark, representation / abstraction, and attraction / repulsion may call into question what we value in art and in a broader cultural context. I believe that my work fits into the ongoing dialogue that elevates the mundane, the ephemeral or the vulgar to a higher status thereby reflecting parts of society that we often refuse to acknowledge in the mirror of traditional norms.

Observational drawing is a very direct way to have this conversation with the viewer with additive and reductive methods of applying charcoal and other abrasive materials on paper and other substrates being the most economical and meditative process for me. The title for this body of work, AUNIVERSAL PICTURE, comes from my only slightly tangential interest in horror films, Universal Studios being one of the more prominent institutions that shaped the modern monster media landscape. The figures in my work are an attempt to both create and destroy what is monstrous to me.

bio

born: 1981, Springfield, Missouri

education

Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, MFA, 2006
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, BFA, 2003

selected awards/honors

First Place Award, Texas National Juried Competition, 2014
Extraordinary Merit Award for Research, University of Wyoming, 2012
Visual Arts Fellowship, Wyoming Arts Council, 2010

selected publications

International Drawing Annual 9; Cincinnati, Ohio: Manifest Press, 2015
AUNIVERSAL PICTURE - Shelby Shadwell / HIGH: Realism's Realism; Cincinnati, Ohio: Manifest Press, 2013
International Drawing Annual 6; Cincinnati, Ohio: Manifest Press, 2011
International Drawing Annual 5; Cincinnati, Ohio: Manifest Press, 2010

selected solo or two-person exhibits

APEX Gallery, Portland Art Museum, AUNIVERSAL PICTURE, Portland, Oregon, 2015
Sidney Larson Gallery, Columbia College, AUNIVERSAL PICTURE, Columbia, Missouri, 2014
Jackson Center for the Arts, AUNIVERSAL PICTURE, Jackson, Wyoming, 2014
Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center, AUNIVERSAL PICTURE, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2013

selected group shows

Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Empire of Dirt, Newark, New Jersey, 2015
John A. Day Gallery, University of South Dakota, SHADES: Contemporary Drawing, Vermillion, South Dakota, 2014
Parkland Art Gallery, Parkland College, Defining Territory: Contemporary Drawing, Champaign, Illinois, 2013
Center for Contemporary Art, GOLDMINES!, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2012