Adam Shaw (painter)
Encyclopedia
Adam Shaw; is an American painter, philosopher, and physician, primarily known as a painter. His work expands the tradition of abstraction by reliance on classical painterly techniques and a view towards the referential. He has explored numerous directions loosely referred to as landscape, flowers, trees, and work using language as an element.
Adam Shaw's process involves the application and removal often of well over one hundred layers on a single painting, which may take over a decade to make, creating lush textural surfaces that retain a remarkable luminosity. His work is informed by lifelong study of esoteric western and eastern traditions evoking transformative spiritual experience.
Shaw's work has been widely exhibited in the United States, with gallery representation including Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Dallas, Scottsdale, Portland, San Francisco Bay Area, Tulsa, and South Norwalk. His work is in hundreds of private and corporate collections throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe, including the Bank of America, The Gap, Marriott Hotels and eBay Corporation.
, studying art history. In 1981 he moved to San Francisco to pursue a Master’s degree in Poetics. Following that he became a physician and was in private practice for 14 years. He has taught workshops and lectured at numerous institutions, including Palmer College and the College of Marin
. He has published a number of his own poems and has translated poetry from Latin, Russian and Italian.
His work combines abstract tradition with a sensibility to the present moment that is the result of an affinity for Eastern spiritual teachings. His paintings have lush surfaces built up over the course of 3 to 5 years or more, and a luminous tension that evokes a deep emotional response in the viewer.
He will frequently work on a painting for an entire day, later to completely scrape off all the paint that was applied, leaving only remnants of the paint that found its way into previously gouged out areas. He works like this over the course of years to build a single painting, with its layers mostly never seen by the viewer though they impart a sense of history. Throughout the process the use of language — written, painted, or scraped into the paint — is actively employed, expressing poetic, philosophical and personal messages, most of which get covered over or remain as fragmentary relics.
Adam Shaw's process involves the application and removal often of well over one hundred layers on a single painting, which may take over a decade to make, creating lush textural surfaces that retain a remarkable luminosity. His work is informed by lifelong study of esoteric western and eastern traditions evoking transformative spiritual experience.
Shaw's work has been widely exhibited in the United States, with gallery representation including Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Dallas, Scottsdale, Portland, San Francisco Bay Area, Tulsa, and South Norwalk. His work is in hundreds of private and corporate collections throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe, including the Bank of America, The Gap, Marriott Hotels and eBay Corporation.
Life and work
Adam Shaw was born in New York City. He has been painting his entire life and began working with oils in the mid 1970s. He was educated in the Renaissance tradition, receiving a BA in Classics, with a minor in Russian and Italian. In 1979 and 1980 he lived in Italy, in Florence and UrbinoUrbino
Urbino is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482...
, studying art history. In 1981 he moved to San Francisco to pursue a Master’s degree in Poetics. Following that he became a physician and was in private practice for 14 years. He has taught workshops and lectured at numerous institutions, including Palmer College and the College of Marin
College of Marin
The College of Marin is a community college in Marin County, California, U.S., with two campuses, one in Kentfield, and the second in Novato. It is the only institution operated by the Marin Community College District. Its chief executive officer is currently Superintendent/President David Wain...
. He has published a number of his own poems and has translated poetry from Latin, Russian and Italian.
His work combines abstract tradition with a sensibility to the present moment that is the result of an affinity for Eastern spiritual teachings. His paintings have lush surfaces built up over the course of 3 to 5 years or more, and a luminous tension that evokes a deep emotional response in the viewer.
Process
In his early career, Shaw would often work on a single piece over many months, spending hours “just looking” interspersed with outbursts of painterly activity. At the time he was generally regarded as a “color field” painter. However, in the 1990s and beyond he became preoccupied with dense textural surfaces and his work habits evolved to exploring the development of an entire body of work simultaneously, with as many as 20 paintings in varying degrees of process. In creating his paintings he uses brushes, sticks, rags, pouring, sanding, grinding, scraping, etc., working both on the easel and the floor inside his studio in the Sonoma wine country north of San Francisco, as well as outside where his paintings often bake in the sun.He will frequently work on a painting for an entire day, later to completely scrape off all the paint that was applied, leaving only remnants of the paint that found its way into previously gouged out areas. He works like this over the course of years to build a single painting, with its layers mostly never seen by the viewer though they impart a sense of history. Throughout the process the use of language — written, painted, or scraped into the paint — is actively employed, expressing poetic, philosophical and personal messages, most of which get covered over or remain as fragmentary relics.
Gallery
The following images show representative work from four categories of Adam Shaw paintings.Landscapes
Trees
Flowers
Language
Solo
| 2010 | Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
| Aberson Exhibits, Tulsa, OK | |
| 2009 | Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2008 | Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2007 | Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2006 | Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2005 | Craighead-Green Gallery, Dallas, TX |
| Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM | |
| Calvin Charles Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ | |
| 2004 | Craighead-Green Gallery, Dallas, TX |
| Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM | |
| 2003 | Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
| I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA | |
| 2002 | I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA |
| William Turner Gallery, Venice, CA | |
| 2001 | I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA |
| Plaza Gallery, Bank of America Center, San Francisco, CA | |
| 2000 | Jernigan-Wicker Gallery, San Francisco, CA |
| 1999 | Linda Penzur Gallery, San Anselmo, CA |
| Ortega Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA | |
| 1998 | Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA |
| Eos, San Francisco, CA | |
| 1997 | Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA |
| Marin Society of Artists, Ross, CA |
Group
| 2010 | Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
| Galerie Sono, South Norwalk, CT | |
| Aberson Exhibits, Tulsa, OK | |
| Calvin Charles Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ | |
| Butters Gallery, Portland, OR | |
| 2009 | Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
| Calvin Charles Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ | |
| Galerie Sono, South Norwalk, CT | |
| I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA | |
| 2008 | Calvin Charles Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ |
| Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM | |
| Galerie Sono, South Norwalk, CT | |
| I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA | |
| 2007 | Calvin Charles Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ |
| Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM | |
| 2006 | Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM |
| Anderson Miguel Fine Art, Healdsburg, CA | |
| Calvin Charles Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ | |
| 2005 | Craighead-Green Gallery, Dallas, TX |
| Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM | |
| Calvin Charles Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ | |
| Lyon and Lyon Fine Art, New Orleans, LA | |
| I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA | |
| 2004 | Craighead-Green Gallery, Dallas, TX |
| Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM | |
| William Turner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA | |
| 2003 | Craighead-Green Gallery, Dallas, TX |
| Patricia Carlisle Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM | |
| I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA | |
| Lewallen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM | |
| William Turner Gallery, Venice, CA | |
| 2002 | William Turner Gallery, Venice, CA |
| I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA | |
| Winfield Gallery, Carmel, CA | |
| 2001 | I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA |
| Expressions in Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM | |
| BGH Gallery, Santa Monica, CA | |
| 2000 | I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA |
| 1999 | Robert Green Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA |
| Studio Gallery, San Francisco, CA | |
| 1998 | Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA |
Public
- Bank of America Building, San Francisco, CA
- Gap Corporate Offices, San Francisco, CA
- Los Alamos National Bank, Santa Fe, NM
- Marriot Hotel, San Francisco, CA
- 3 Com Corporation, San Jose, CA
- Industrial Indemnity, San Francisco, CA
- Quantum Corporation, Santa Clara, CA
- Magley and Associates, San Francisco, CA
- Silicon Valley Bank, San Jose, CA
- Asante Partners, Menlo Park, CA
- Motion Picture Actors of America Association, Woodland Hills, CA
- eBay Corporation, San Jose, CA
- St. Francis Hospital Foundation, San Francisco, CA
- Cushman Wakefield, San Francisco, CA
- Shorenstein Realty, San Francisco, CA
- San Francisco Bay Club, San Francisco, CA