Shelby Shadwell
Untitled, 2026
graphite and paints on wood
Artist statement
Shelby Shadwell’s work consists of large-scale drawings and paintings of non-traditional imagery such as gut piles left over from big game hunts, space blankets used in emergency situations to stay warm, black plastic trash bags, and pieces of black anthracite coal. The work may illicit feelings of disgust or revulsion and awe or ecstasy simultaneously due to the contrast between the vulgarity or ephemerality of the imagery juxtaposed with its meticulous, hyper-realistic, rendering. Among other things, Shelby’s work allows viewers space to ask questions about low and high status in artistic subject matter and romantic tropes in historical and contemporary western art.
I outline some of the conceptual underpinnings of my practice in statements geared towards individual bodies of work. However, something else is foundational to the act of making images and objects in the studio - Labor. Futility. Artmaking as an act of defiance against the absurdity of the world in the philosophical sense.
Artist bio
Shelby is currently a Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Wyoming. Born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, Shelby received his BFA in 2003 from Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in 2006 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
A two-time recipient of the Visual Arts Fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council, Shelby actively exhibits across the nation. His more recent exhibitions include LIKE AND SHARE IF YOU AGREE!!!, a solo show at the South Bend Museum of Art, DRAWN at Manifest Creative Research Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, and Drawing Discourse at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Shelby was awarded a solo exhibition at the APEX Space at the Portland Art Museum in OR in 2016, and his work is included in their permanent collection. For his research sabbatical from 2021 – 2022, Shelby accepted the Manifest Artist Residency Award, and he spent the year making new work at their Gallery and collaborating on educational opportunities at their Drawing Center in Cincinnati, OH.
Shelby was recently honored with the Stone & Deguire Contemporary Art Award from his alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. Recent and upcoming solo exhibition venues include STRATA Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, the Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn, NY, IA&A at Hillyer in Washington D.C, and the Bradbury Art Museum in Jonesboro, AR.
@shelbyshadwell
