Richard Shaw (born 1941 in Los Angeles, California, United States) is an American ceramicist and professor known for his trompe-l'œil (French for "fool the eye") style."Richard Shaw: Four Decades of Ceramics", Sonoma County Museum, 2010. Retrieved on 9 February 2017. A term often associated with paintings, referring to the illusion that a two-dimensional surface is three-dimensional.Meisel, Alan. "San Francisco", Craft Horizons, August 1976. In Shaw's work, it refers to his replication of everyday objects (such as tin cans, playing cards, and cutlery) in porcelain. He then glazes these components and groups them in unexpected and even jarring combinations.White, Cheryl. "Master of Illusion: Richard Shaw", American Ceramics, 1987. Interested in how objects can reflect a person or identity, Shaw poses questions regarding the relationship between appearances and reality.Shaw, Richard. "Welcome to the Web Home of Ceramist Richard Shaw", Richardshawart.com, 2008. Retrieved on 9 February 2017.
Education and career
The child of an artist mother and a Walt Disney cartoonist/animator father, Shaw was surrounded by art from a young age. Though he is now known for his work with ceramics, he initially planned on becoming a painter. For the last three years of high school, he attended Desert Sun School, located in the San Jacinto Mountains – a private school which had, according to Shaw, an environment that fostered creativity in its students. Still set on becoming a painter, Shaw then briefly attended Orange Coast College. At Orange Coast, he met Martha, a painter who would become his wife, and he first began to work with ceramics.
Following his time at Orange Coast College, Shaw attended the San Francisco Art Institute. He identifies 1963 as the year during which he began seriously working with ceramics and pottery, citing professors Ron Nagle, Jim Melchert, Peter Voulkos, and John Mason as inspiring figures during his time at the Institute. From Voulkos and Mason – who Shaw credits with "revolutionizing" the ceramics scene in the later twentieth century – he learned to experiment with new kiln firing techniques. The trend in the artistic ceramics world (as opposed to the "commercial pottery" world) had been to create high-fire pieces – pieces fired at higher temperatures, which maximized durability."High Fire Glaze Recipes", Ceramic Arts Daily. Retrieved on 9 February 2017. However, in 1965, Shaw's work was displayed in the Museum of Arts and Design (previously the Museum of Contemporary Crafts) in New York, and many of his pieces there were low-fire, which resulted in their having a different surface finish than traditional high-fire pieces."Low-firing and Burnishing", Ceramic Arts Daily, 21 Jan. 2010. Retrieved on 9 February 2017.
In 1965, Shaw earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institute, after which he attended the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University for a semester, about which he has said, "Where else do you go if you're into ceramics?" He returned to California to teach at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1966–1987."Fellow: Richard Shaw", American Craft, Oct./Nov. 1998. While teaching at the Institute, he also attended the University of California, Davis, earning his Master of Fine Arts in 1968. Shaw was Professor of Ceramics at the University of California, Berkeley from 1987 to 2012, and he currently lives in Fairfax, CA with his wife Martha."Richard Shaw: Four Decades of Ceramics", Sonoma County Museum, 2010. Retrieved on 9 February 2017
Awards Shaw has received the following awards:
2000: Marin Arts Council Board Award, San Rafael, California 1998: Shigaraki Cultural Ceramic Park, Shigaraki, Japan 1998: Artist in Residence, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts 1996: Annual Life Member Award, Falkirk Arts Center, San Rafael, California 1988: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree, San Francisco Art Institute 1987: Visiting Artist Grant, Atelier Experimental de Recherche et de Création, Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, Paris, France 1974: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship 1971: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
Museum collections Shaw is represented in the following museum collections:
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin"Ceramics", Racine Art Museum. Retrieved on 9 February 2017. Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Selected solo exhibitions Shaw's solo exhibitions around the United States include:"Richard Shaw", Frank Lloyd Gallery. Retrieved on 9 February 2017.
2014: Richard Shaw: Ceramic Sculptures, B. Sakata Garo, Sacramento, California 2010: Richard Shaw: Four Decades of Ceramics, Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, California 2007: Richard Shaw: Working Drawings from Studio Sketchbooks, Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, California 2003: Trompe l'Oeil Ceramics, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1998: Master's Touch, Tempe Art Center, Tempe, Arizona 1990: Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, California 1987: The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii 1983: Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin 1979: Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California
Selected group exhibitions Shaw's work has been included in the following group exhibitions around the United States:"Richard Shaw", Anglim Gilbert Gallery. Retrieved on 9 February 2017. 2017: Variations on a Theme: Teapots from RAM's Collection, Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin"Variations on a Theme: Teapots from RAM's Collection: January 29 – July 9, 2017" , Racine Art Museum. Retrieved on 9 February 2017. 2016: Order & Nature, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, California 2013: New Blue and White: Contemporary Art and Design, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts 2013: Top 10 at 10: Favorites from RAM's Collection, Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin 2012: Crafting Modernism, Midcentury American Art and Craft, Museum of Art and Design, New York, New York 2012: Indelibly Yours: Smith Anderson Editions and the Tattoo Project, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, California 2012: Invite and Ignite: the 25th Exhibitions Anniversary and Symposium, New Castle, Maine 2011: Not So Still Life, Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin 2007: The Reality of Things: Trompe l'Oeil in America, Vero Beach Museum, Vero Beach, Florida 2005: I Hope You Learned Your Lesson, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, California 2004: Masters of Illusion: 150 Years of Trompe l'Oeil in America, Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 2002: Something, Anything, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, New York 2000: Expanded Visions, Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 1995: Altered and Irrational, Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York 1994: The Ritual Vessel, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
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