July 10 through August 24, 2023

Opening Reception: Thursday July 11, 5:30-7:30pm

Gallery Paule Anglim is pleased to present an exhibition of new ceramic sculptures by Richard Shaw.

The exhibition will present several new figures, stick characters cobbled together from humble objects remade in porcelain.  The artist will also present tables with settings   describing the artist’s process.  All are in a format where things are not what they appear to be, whether in their material, function or silhouette.

Shaw has been an integral part of the San Francisco Art scene since he began studies at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1963.  His artworks have become key to California’s re-think of postwar modernism bringing trompe l’oeil, humor and word play together into three dimensional imagery.  Teachers and friends Jim Melchert and Ron Nagle helped him define his own approach to ceramic sculpture.  Where funk artists brought together found or used ordinary objects, Shaw’s own take on assemblage and construction has been to “quote’ them in illusionistic reproduction from everyday life.  Shaw’s way of addressing craft and its presumed functionality has been very influential to other artists.

Shaw has exhibited his work for 45 years and his sculptures are in many museum collections from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and others.