Opening Reception: Thursday, January 10, 6- 8 PM
We are pleased to present a survey exhibition on the work of David Shapiro (1944 – 2014). The exhibition will open on January 10 and run until February 2nd with an opening reception on Thursday, January 10th between 6 and 8 pm.
Born in Brooklyn in 1944, David Shapiro worked in New York City for his entire career. His distinctive approach to abstraction combined opposing forces in the form of multi-paneled works to create visual harmony. This exhibition features mid to large-scale canvases as well as works on paper. During his lifetime, Shapiro made over 50 print editions with internationally esteemed Master Printers as well as numerous monotypes. The works were printed and mounted on rare handmade papers, some of which Shapiro sourced during his travels abroad.
I remember David relating to me how often a brushstroke on the canvas would coincide with the arc of his breath as he painted, outer connecting with inner, spiritual with material. A mark was not only an extension of his body, but of his very essence. He believed in painting as not only as expression of his self, but as a means to understand his non-self, all that wasn’t David Shapiro in the universe. His poise and steadfastness in this regard enabled him to create a body of work over the years that both evolved and held together. He achieved mastery but avoided the facile or the obvious. - Douglas Florian
The Nicholas Metivier Gallery has represented David Shapiro since 2004 and has mounted four solo exhibitions. In 2015, Shapiro's paintings and works on paper were paired with Edward Burtynsky's Pivot Irrigation photographs in the exhibition, Nature Abstracted. Burtynsky has credited Shapiro as being a major influence for this particular body work. Shapiro's work is represented in many private, corporate, and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.; and the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art in Nagoya, Japan.
