Controlled Burn

collage on paper

16 x 15 inches

Courtesy of The Artist

Guest Curated by Sally Kemp

Sharon Shapiro is a Charlottesville-based artist recognized for her paintings and collages that explore the complexities of contemporary female experience and the cultural landscape of the American South. Her work often examines the tension between a placid exterior and a turbulent inner life, frequently focusing on themes of adolescence, womanhood, memory, and transformation. Shapiro has exhibited her work nationally and is a two-time recipient of VMFA's Professional Fellowship.

Sharon Shapiro's work engages painting as a site for emotional excavation, where color, gesture, and environment reflect themes of fragility, agency, and personal reckoning. Rooted in the cultural landscape of the American South, her practice centers the female experience through the lens of both societal expectation and private interiority. She is currently working toward Tender Wild, a solo exhibition opening this Spring at Spectrum Fine Arts (Seattle, WA). Additional recent solo exhibitions include No Man's Land at Quirk Gallery (Richmond, VA) and George Mason University (Manassas, VA); Visionary Picnic at Hillyer Gallery (Washington, DC); and Then the Dream Changed at Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (Arlington, VA). She has presented two-person exhibitions at SPRING/BREAK Art Show (New York, NY), Pollinator Art Space (Atlanta, GA), and the Gadsden Museum of Art (Gadsden, AL). Recent group exhibitions include Ferrara Showman Gallery (New Orleans, LA); McColl Center (Charlotte, NC); Spectrum Fine Art (Seattle, WA); Mint Museum of Art (Charlotte, NC); and The Painting Center (New York, NY). She has been in residence at Ucross, Jentel, Ragdale, The Hambidge Center, Mother's Milk, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A two-time Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship recipient, her work is held in numerous collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (Atlanta, GA), and the Tullman Collection (Chicago, IL). Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, Whitewall, Art Spiel, Oxford American, The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and Kolaj Magazine. Shapiro holds an MFA from the Maine College of Art & Design and lives and works in Charlottesville, VA.