Preview: Sharon Shapiro at Poem 88
The Virginia-based artist explores the golden state as both a place and an idea
- http://clatl.com/atlanta/ImageArchives?by=1223504
- “Busy,” watercolor on paper, 10” x 12”, 2010
On Saturday, the curatorial alchemists of Poem 88 at the Tanner Hill Gallery Project Space will open California, an exhibition of new work from Virginia-based artist Sharon Shapiro. The paintings, watercolors, and photographs included in the exhibition explore the golden state as both a place and an idea.
In Shapiro’s artist statement for the show, she says that her thoughts and ideas about California began long before she ever traveled there: “For me, growing up in West Virginia in the 1970’s, California seemed geographically and conceptually as far away as one could possibly go. Convertibles. Palm trees. Suntans. Nightclubs. Palm Springs. Valley of the Dolls. Hollywood. Beverly Hills. Marilyn Monroe. Hugh Heffner. Case Study Houses. California was the physical and ideological end of Manifest Destiny. I was 18 before I finally saw it with my own eyes.”
California is Shapiro’s first solo show in Atlanta since an exhibition at Solomon Projects in 2002. The reception begins at 7 pm on Sat., Jan. 19.
Preview a few images of her after the jump.