Still Available...

“Shroud No.1”/”Shroud No.2” 2009
These were a real breakthrough for me: completely non-objective art focused on materials and texture, a purity I have struggled to achieve since I saw the Action/Abstraction Show at the St. Louis Art Museum in Oct. 2008 has been achieved in my mind. I have an acquaintance or two-dozen that feel like abstract art is baloney, but it’s much more complicated to create, explain, argue, appreciate, and evaluate than some people have the intellect or imagination to entertain. There is a lot that of abstract work that is poorly done, and there is a great deal that is sublime and transcendent: sorting Fine Art from the Emperor’s New Clothes is a confounding, and sometimes convoluted business.

$125.00 each *READ MORE ABOUT THEM HERE*

STILL AVAILABLE at Concrete Ocean! Pick up the phone and call Bryan Pease at Concrete Ocean: (314)497-0199
2257 S. Jefferson
St. Louis, MO
“Shroud No.1”, 2009
cut cardboard & acrylic, 16 x 20"
$125.00

“Shroud No.2”, 2009
cut cardboard & acrylic, 16 x 20"
$125.00

Still Available...

I sold nearly half my show at Concrete Ocean last Friday, but there are still a few left... NOW is your chance to pick one up. I get some criticism around town for pricing too low, but I figure that if they are selling, the price must be right:


"Doubly Blessed No.1" $65.00
8 x 10" acrylic on masonite, framed
STILL AVAILABLE at Concrete Ocean! Pick up the phone and call Bryan Pease at Concrete Ocean: (314)497-0199
2257 S. Jefferson
St. Louis, MO


"Doubly Blessed No.2" $65.00
8 x 10" acrylic, glitter, rhinestones on masonite, framed
STILL AVAILABLE at Concrete Ocean! Pick up the phone and call Bryan Pease at Concrete Ocean: (314)497-0199
2257 S. Jefferson
St. Louis, MO

Memorial Portrait

Untitled (Bride/Memorial Portrait), 2010
acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14”
CM Shaw, March 2010

Opening Night at Concrete Ocean

In spite of there being several art openings in the St. Louis this past Friday evening, my mixed media retrospective at Concrete Ocean Art Gallery with Jeff Sass was a success. At last count, I had sold seven of the twenty-one paintings- not too shabby. An intimate but enthusiastic crowd that seemed to be there for the music as much as the art warmly received my band, The Good Medicine Revival (I could hear you kids out there and you sounded great!). And to think that many of these paintings have been hidden away in boxes for years… all good things in time, I guess.



Thanks to my show partner Jeff Sass for all his hard work and beautiful art- a sweetheart. My humble thanks to all that came out to see Jeff & I- some of you all the way from my hometown of Cuba, Mo (damn!). I can’t thank my patrons enough- you allow me to keep doing this every time you take one home. Thanks to the Riverfront Times, Bill Barrett at Webster University, Stephen and Peter at Art Patrol, Stefene Russell at St. Louis Magazine, the kids at my hometown newspaper The Cuba Free Press, and everyone else who put the buzz out on the street. Thanks and love to my lovely parents Patrick and Ramona for always being there. Thanks to my band mates for tirelessly entertaining the crowd the entire evening, and putting on one hell of a show! And of course, a very special thanks to gallery owner Bryan Pease for believing in Jeff and I. I felt like it was a good night!

One of the funniest moments of the evening was having Tony Renner show up in the outfit he wore in his cut cardboard portrait I crafted last year- Hilarious! Tony is a generously humorous, deeply intelligent, and beautiful individual. I have yet to discover who bought the portrait, and Tony said he (laughs) wasn’t certain how he felt about that! Tony has been one of the most inspiring St. Louis artists I have met since my arrival in 1997. Almost completely self-taught, Tony just jumped right into art only a few short years ago, and works as hard as any local artist in realizing his vision. A suggestion he offered over drinks at Blueberry Hill on Delmar was the catalyst for my recent works on corrugated cardboard, which have been very fun and successful. As in many cities, the St. Louis art scene can be very cliquey- not all are accepted and included… but Tony was absolutely, immediately genuine...


If you missed opening night, just call Bryan or myself for a viewing appointment:

shawart.com: (314)814-0040
Concrete Ocean: (314)497-0199
2257 S. Jefferson
St. Louis, MO

Receiver

"Receiver" (sketch)
marker, ballpoint pen, correction fluid on paper
8 1/2 x 11"


COLIN MICHAEL SHAW AT CONCRETE OCEAN, 2257 S. JEFFERSON, ST. LOUIS, MO 3/19/10
This show is really a retrospective of a few of the different mixed media working methods I have employed in the last seven years of painting in St. Louis. I came to St. Louis to paint in 1997 and began working immediately in my little upstairs studio on Watson Road, just off Hampton Avenue. Unable to catch the attention of any galleries in town, I would often sell work by word of mouth or by carrying a stash of prints in my car to sell wherever I happened to be. Within the first couple of years opportunities for commission had arrived, and I had won a corner to sell paintings and prints in a little store called Archetypes on the bustling Delmar Loop in University City. A few years later I would find success in a string of shows across the state in Springfield, MO- It would be some time, however, before I was given my own show in a St. Louis art gallery.
Some of these paintings have been shown across the state in Springfield, MO, some have shown in St. Louis fairly recently, and several have never been shown at all. I felt this was an interesting grouping of some of the different styles I have worked in- a chance to see where I came from, a chance to wonder where I’ll go and how I’ll mature.

"Receiver" 2003
acrylic and torn paper collage on plywood
8 x 12"

Kiss My Astronaut

“The Guest” 8 x 10”
acrylic, magazine collage, varnish on masonite

“The Guest” is one of several of my magazine collages created about four years ago that will be featured in my upcoming show with Jeff Sass at Concrete Ocean Art Gallery on Friday, March 19th. This one, along with a couple dozen others have been hiding in a box, never having been publicly shown for the last four years, so I was excited to frame them for my upcoming mixed media retrospective at Concrete, which will show several of my working methods in the last several years of painting in St. Louis.

“The Guest” is one of a several humorous pieces in the show; I enjoy watching people smile and laugh when they are looking at these, and always try to enjoy some humor wherever I can find it. There’s one in every crowd- the life of the party, the one wearing a lampshade. Sometimes it’s me; sometimes it’s you. Laughter is good medicine, speaking of which, be sure to catch my acoustic band, The Good Medicine Revival Show at Concrete Ocean on opening night, March 19th- Fun!

Preparations

"Shroud No.1" and "Shroud No.2" 2009
acrylic, cut cardboard, 16 x 20"

I'm very quickly assembling the lineup for my March 19th show at Concrete Ocean Art Gallery, detailed in the previous blog post. As I said before, it will be varied assortment of my mixed media work from the last six years or so, including the two pieces pictured above, which I made this past October- you can read about them in my October blog post. These "shroud paintings" are really different than some of the figurative works that will accompany them in the show, but will tie into the lineup through the common materials used in a couple of the other pieces that will be shown, including my portrait of Tony Renner, also crafted in cut cardboard.

From my press release on the forthcoming showing:
Moving to St. Louis in 1997, Shaw began showing his work wherever he could while honing his emotionally charged, mercurial approach to art- a labyrinth variety of internal symbolism and approaches to working evolved over the next thirteen years. Mixed media works from the artist’s last six years will reveal fantastical whimsy, social commentary, as well as examination concerning the mythos of the artist as subject.