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  Richard
Shaw
Born in Hollywood in 1941, ceramic artist Richard Shaw moved to the Bay Area in the sixties to study at the San Francisco Art Institute and University of California, Davis, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s of fine arts degrees. The son of an artist mother and cartoonist father, Shaw’s artistic sensibilities thrived in the rich atmosphere surrounding San Francisco, where he worked with Robert Arneson, Robert Hudson, and Ron Nagle, among others.

Shaw entered school as a painter, but quickly made ceramics his primary medium. The artist has been making and using plaster molds since the sixties, refining his technique over forty years as he explored the possibilities and limitations of clay. He has developed an astonishing array of techniques, including his perfectly cast porcelain figures, hand built and thrown clay objects and overglaze transfer decals, a method he adapted from silk-screening processes.

A unique figure in the world of contemporary ceramics, Shaw uses clay to recreate the objects of everyday life, gathering them together into ceramic sculpture that has the power to both amuse and amaze. Judith S. Schwartz, writing for the 2007 Richard Shaw: New Work catalogue, affirms that the artist “takes the mundane and enchantingly replays our memory of these objects, restoring their value while aesthetically challenging out senses. With idealistic vision, sympathetic yearning and a twinkle in his eye, Shaw enlightens and informs that which we take for granted and normally dismiss.”

Humor and irreverence play a large role in Shaw’s work, as he inserts meaning just below the beguiling surfaces of his sculptures. His exacting application of trompe l’oeil decals and glazing results in objects that, according to Suzanne Foley of the San Francisco Museum of Art, walk “the imaginative edge of the delightful and the absurd, with just the right amount of restraint to command elegance.”

Shaw has benefitted from particularly fruitful collaborations with Robert Hudson, wherein the pair of artists shared studio space as they experimented with new and unorthodox techniques. They also toyed with the functionality of ceramics, creating jars and teapots that stretch the viewer’s ability to imagine the objects in use.

Shaw skillfully combines the stuff of daily life into whimsical still lifes that appropriate mass culture while also drawing on personal experiences and memories. Michael Schwager gets to the heart of Shaw’s body of work, writing in his essay for the Richard Shaw: Four Decades of Ceramics catalogue that “it honors modesty and humility and embodies an almost Zen-like state of mindfulness, in which the artist sees beauty, simplicity, and honesty in the familiar—and often invisible—things that surround us in our everyday lives.”

Richard Shaw has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions since 1967, and his work is included in major museum collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.




Awards

1988    Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree, San Francisco Art Institute
1987    Visiting Artist Grant, Manufacture National De Sevres, Paris, France
1974    National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1970    National Endowment for the Arts Crafts Grant

Education

1968     M.F.A. University of California, Davis
1965     B.F.A.  San Francisco Art Institute
            State University of New York at Alfred

Museum Collections

Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
The Anderson Collection at Stanford University, Stanford, California
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
Cantor Museum, Stanford University, Stanford, California
Contemporary Arts Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
de Young Museum, San Francisco, California
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, California
Ichon World Ceramic Center, Ichon, Korea
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois
Levi Strauss Collection, San Francisco, California
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Lowe Art Museum, University of Florida, Coral Gables, Florida
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, North Carolina
Museum of Art and Design, New York
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
The Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Nora Eccles Museum of Art, Logan, Utah
Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
Palm Beach Museum, Palm Beach, Florida
Petits Lu Collection, Paris, France
Rene Di Rosa Collection, Napa, California
Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,
       Washington, DC
St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, University of Nebraska, Lincoln,
       Nebraska
The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
University of Miami, Miami, Florida
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Yale University Art Museum, New Haven, Connecticut

Selected Solo Exhibitions


2014   Richard Shaw: Ceramic Sculptures, B. Sakata Garo, Sacramento, California
2013   Richard Shaw: New Work, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco,
                 California
2010   Richard Shaw: Four Decades of Ceramics, Sonoma County Museum,
                 Sonoma, California
          Richard Shaw: New Works, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
2009   Richard Shaw: Still Life, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2007   Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Richard Shaw: Ceramic Sculpture, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, California
          Richard Shaw: Working Drawings from Studio Sketchbooks, Diablo Valley
                College, Pleasant Hill, California
2005   Richard Shaw: Still Lifes, Museum of Los Gatos, Los Gatos, California
          Richard and Martha Shaw, b. Sakata Garo, Sacramento, California
          Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Richard Shaw: It Ain’t Necessarily So, Davis & Cline Gallery, Ashland, Oregon
2003   Richard Shaw: New Ceramic Sculpture, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
          Trompe L’oeil Ceramics, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2002   Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
2001   Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
          Sakata Garo, Sacramento, California
          Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts
          Collaboration: Richard Shaw and Robert Hudson, Byron C. Cohen
                  Gallery for Contemporary Art; Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art,
                  Kansas City, Missouri
2000   Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Hand Workshop Art Center, Richmond, Virgina
1999   Robert Hudson & Richard Shaw: New Ceramic Sculpture, Addison Gallery of
                  American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; traveled to Yerba Buena Center
                  for the Arts, San Francisco, California
          Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
          Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts
1998   Master’s Touch, Tempe Art Center, Tempe, Arizona
          Richard Shaw, A Survey, George Adams Gallery, New York
          Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
1996   Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Fallkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California
1995   Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1993   Braunstein/Quay, San Francisco, California
1992   Frumkin/Adams Gallery, New York
          Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida
1991   Fullerton Museum Center, Fullerton, California
1990   Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Frumkin/Adams Gallery, New York
          Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California
          Howard Yerzerski Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
          Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, California
          Schneider Museum of Art Ashland, Oregon
1989   Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
1988   Alan Frumkin Gallery, New York
          Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada
          University of the Pacific, Stockton, California
1987   Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, Wisconsin
          The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii
          Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, Washington
          Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
          Palm Springs Desert Museum, Inc., Palm Springs, California
          Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
1986   Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York
          Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
          Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas
          Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama
          Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona
1985   Asher/Faure Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1984   Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri
1983   Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin
1982   Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Canada
          Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Boise Gallery of Art, Boise, Idaho
          Greenberg Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri
          Mendel Art Gallery and Civic Conservatory, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
1981   Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
          Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California
          San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
1980   Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York
1979   Belson-Brown Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho
          Michael Berger Gallery, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
          Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
1977   Jacqueline Anhalt Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1976   Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
1974   E.G. Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri
1973   Robert Hudson/Richard Shaw: Work in Porcelain, San Francisco Museum of Art
                 San Francisco, California
          Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
1971   Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
1970   Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
1969   Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, California
1967   San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California