Imprints and Abstraction:
A Series of Paintings by Shawn Marshall
March 17th - May 7th
Opening Reception 3/17 from 5-8:00 pm
Capacity Contemporary Exchange
Shawn’s art practice focuses on the natural world and our impact on it, and is informed by her background in architecture and urban planning. This body of work is explored through an overhead lens and bird’s eye view of abandoned city ruins. One can imagine looking down on the the patterns of building foundations, garden walls, riverbeds, natural topography, and sidewalks, while time wears them away. This abstract series is an urban reaction to her ethereal landscape paintings.
Through the experimentation of materials and process, Marshall developed a new visual language for her abstract work as she examines how we impose our sense of order, structure, and materiality on the natural world. She applies layers of acrylic paint and paper in addition to painting patterns made by using stencils from found objects in her environment. Repetition becomes an important organizational structure in her compositions.
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Shawn's work is in private collections in the U.S. and in Europe and included in corporate collections including PNC Bank, Brown-Forman Corporation, the University of Kentucky, Commonwealth Bank, and others. She is an art educator who earned a Master of Art in Teaching from Bellarmine, Master of Architecture with a Minor in Fine Art from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Kentucky.