Shawn Powell Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
Cabin Fever: Cages, Rooms, Walls and Windows
By presenting a system of fractures my paintings become bizarre, abrasive, disorienting, self-deprecating, uncanny, and ambiguous. The dialectical tensions in my work are entirely purposeful. Incarceration and containment are themes in my work that address larger problems of agency and conflicts that are deeply rooted in the human mind. Paint is an apt material to symbolize the sensual, abject, and delusional features of the human condition.
The feeling of incarceration is achieved through a tension between representational signifiers as well as formal dynamics. Literal paintings of walls, window grates, bars or fences act as obstacles and destinations. Abstract patterns and color are used to create an intense sensory barrier between the viewer and illusionistic space within the paintings. In contrast to representation, hard-edge abstraction serves to create a suppressing enclosure in many of the paintings. Graffiti, and its illegibility serves to further fracture, mask and deface the inaccessible spaces of my paintings. While graffiti may act as a problematized and public form of decoration, equally problematized forms of decoration appear in my work. Abstract “wallpaper” patterns imply a private almost theatrical setting. Where boundary and blockade symbolize a larger more ominous narrative, in these private settings the expressive and abject use of paint imply a more sinister and private narrative.
My recent paintings employ the physical body of paint to create tension between the viewer and the metaphorical window of the painted image. These paintings intentionally simulate the feeling and psychology of containment. The density of this “blockade” of paint cages the viewer all the while providing them with images of caged and incarcerated environments.
Cabin Fever: Cages, Rooms, Walls and Windows
By presenting a system of fractures my paintings become bizarre, abrasive, disorienting, self-deprecating, uncanny, and ambiguous. The dialectical tensions in my work are entirely purposeful. Incarceration and containment are themes in my work that address larger problems of agency and conflicts that are deeply rooted in the human mind. Paint is an apt material to symbolize the sensual, abject, and delusional features of the human condition.
The feeling of incarceration is achieved through a tension between representational signifiers as well as formal dynamics. Literal paintings of walls, window grates, bars or fences act as obstacles and destinations. Abstract patterns and color are used to create an intense sensory barrier between the viewer and illusionistic space within the paintings. In contrast to representation, hard-edge abstraction serves to create a suppressing enclosure in many of the paintings. Graffiti, and its illegibility serves to further fracture, mask and deface the inaccessible spaces of my paintings. While graffiti may act as a problematized and public form of decoration, equally problematized forms of decoration appear in my work. Abstract “wallpaper” patterns imply a private almost theatrical setting. Where boundary and blockade symbolize a larger more ominous narrative, in these private settings the expressive and abject use of paint imply a more sinister and private narrative.
My recent paintings employ the physical body of paint to create tension between the viewer and the metaphorical window of the painted image. These paintings intentionally simulate the feeling and psychology of containment. The density of this “blockade” of paint cages the viewer all the while providing them with images of caged and incarcerated environments.
CV
Shawn Powell
Born 1978 in Saint Clair, Missouri
Lives and works in New York
Adjunct Professor of Art, Hunter College
EDUCATION
2008 MFA in Painting, Hunter College
2005 BFA in Painting and Art History, Kansas City Art Institute
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011 “Liquid Matter”, The Fabric Workshop and Museum in conjunction with the De La Cruz Collection, Philadelphia, PA
2011 “Chain Letter"Shoshana Wayne Gallery,Santa Monica,CA
2010 “Continuing Color Abstraction” The Painting Center, New York, NY
2010 “Arrival/Departure” Urban Culture Project/La Esquina, Kansas City, MO
2010 “Ripe” The Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, Kansas City, MO
2009 “Alternative Abstraction” Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo NY
2008 “Altered States” Francis Lewis Gallery, Flushing, NY
2008 “MFA Thesis Exhibition” Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
2007 “MAs Curate MFAs” Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
2006 “Surface Tension” Monarch Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2006 “Merging of the Minds” Steuben Gallery-Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2005 “New Blood” Monarch Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2005 "Yearlong Art Installation", Jannes Library-Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
2004 “Painting Seeing” Destination Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2004 “Emerging Artist Exhibition” Mallin and Jacqueline B. Charno Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2002 “The Drawing Show” Destination Gallery, Kansas City, MO
AWARDS
Tony Smith Award Grant, Hunter College
H and R Block Artspace Guest Critique Program, Kansas City Art Institute
Daniel Macmorris Scholarship for Excellent Promise in Painting and Drawing, Kansas City Art Institute
LECTURES/VISITING ARTIST SERIES
Visiting Artist and Lecturer in conjunction with the exhibition “Arrival/Departure”, Kansas City Art Institute, 2010
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Colin Dabkowski, “Five Alternative Views of Abstraction”, The Buffalo News, April 2009.
Shawn Powell
Born 1978 in Saint Clair, Missouri
Lives and works in New York
Adjunct Professor of Art, Hunter College
EDUCATION
2008 MFA in Painting, Hunter College
2005 BFA in Painting and Art History, Kansas City Art Institute
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011 “Liquid Matter”, The Fabric Workshop and Museum in conjunction with the De La Cruz Collection, Philadelphia, PA
2011 “Chain Letter"Shoshana Wayne Gallery,Santa Monica,CA
2010 “Continuing Color Abstraction” The Painting Center, New York, NY
2010 “Arrival/Departure” Urban Culture Project/La Esquina, Kansas City, MO
2010 “Ripe” The Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, Kansas City, MO
2009 “Alternative Abstraction” Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo NY
2008 “Altered States” Francis Lewis Gallery, Flushing, NY
2008 “MFA Thesis Exhibition” Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
2007 “MAs Curate MFAs” Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
2006 “Surface Tension” Monarch Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2006 “Merging of the Minds” Steuben Gallery-Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2005 “New Blood” Monarch Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2005 "Yearlong Art Installation", Jannes Library-Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
2004 “Painting Seeing” Destination Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2004 “Emerging Artist Exhibition” Mallin and Jacqueline B. Charno Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2002 “The Drawing Show” Destination Gallery, Kansas City, MO
AWARDS
Tony Smith Award Grant, Hunter College
H and R Block Artspace Guest Critique Program, Kansas City Art Institute
Daniel Macmorris Scholarship for Excellent Promise in Painting and Drawing, Kansas City Art Institute
LECTURES/VISITING ARTIST SERIES
Visiting Artist and Lecturer in conjunction with the exhibition “Arrival/Departure”, Kansas City Art Institute, 2010
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Colin Dabkowski, “Five Alternative Views of Abstraction”, The Buffalo News, April 2009.
“Barricade”Acrylic on Canvas
70 x 120 inches
2011
“Stalker”Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
70 x 120 inches
2011
“Barricade” (Detail-left half)
“Barricade”(Detail-right half)
“Stalker” (Detail-left half)
“Stalker” (Detail-right half)
“Study for Barricade”Acrylic and Paint Pen on Masonite
26 x 38 inches
2011
“Screened”Acrylic on Masonite
26 x 38 inches
2011
“Night and Day” (Detail-left half)19 x 40 inches (total size)
Acrylic and Polyurethane on Paper
2011
“Night and Day” (Detail-right half)19 x 40 inches (total size)
Acrylic and Polyurethane on Paper
2011
“Slag and Gall”Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
80 x 80 inches
2011
“Container”Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 60 inches
2010
“Vault”Acrylic on Paper
19 x 19 inches
2011
“Drain”Acrylic on Paper
19 x 19 inches
2011
“Chamber 1 (Prison Stripes)”Acrylic on Canvas on Panel
30 x 30 inches
2010
“Chamber 7”Acrylic on Canvas on Panel
30 x 30 inches
2010
“Exsanguination”Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
80 x 80 inches
2009
“Quartered”Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 60 inches
2010
“Golden Memories, Lethe”Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 60 inches
2010
“Stryker”Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 60
2009