BIOGRAPHY
Kathleen Shaver is an abstract painter who studied at Moore College of Art & Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) with teachers and mentors including Bill Richards, Chuck Fahlen, and Thomas Chimes. Her work has been included in a major survey of contemporary Philadelphia artists at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and in exhibits at PAFA, Woodmere Art Museum, the James A. Michener Art Museum, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, the Attleboro Arts Museum, the University of Maryland Art Gallery and Moore.
In addition to the Rodger LaPelle Galleries and 3rd Street Gallery in Philadelphia, Shaver has exhibited in galleries located in Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C. and Texas as well as with Galeria Azur Madrid. Her paintings, drawings, and sculpture are included in both private and corporate collections. Currently, her work is represented by Art Now Media on Artsy.net, Michael Van Nort in Kingston, NY and David Telstar in Reading, PA.
The recipient of numerous awards for painting, Shaver is also a graduate of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. In 2011, she completed a permanent installation of 27 paintings, The History of Nursing as Seen Through the Lens of Art, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing to celebrate 125 years of nursing at Penn.
She lives and works in the Hudson Valley area of New York.
STATEMENT
My art is best described as a search for the primal. Prehistoric cave painters, whose images transcend time, culture, and language, inspire me. The ancient and fundamentally human act of applying pigment to a surface is a constant reference. I work from a place where intuitive gestures and mark-making record a quest for a pre-linguistic awareness. My paintings, drawings and sculptures reflect an interest in the direct perceptions of our lived bodies and the ways these perceptions, unmediated by reflective thought, can reveal to us a kind of primordial awareness, an attunement characterized by wonder and discovery. Prehistoric cave painters sought to grasp the mystery of human existence. Similarly, I seek a unique and fundamentally primal expression of that mystery.
PAINTINGS
Although I work within the tradition of paint on canvas, I am constantly shifting my approach in pursuit of the unexpected. To apply the paint, I use a variety of spatulas, palette knives, rollers, and misshapen old brushes as well as my hands. A dynamic of contrasts is present in my work: bold brushwork and calligraphic lines broach softened or smudged areas; a thick paint build up abuts thinly washed or scraped and scratched passages; bright primary colors compete with murky darks. Gesture works with shape to evoke movement and evolution. These contrasting elements combine to create an active field animated by ambiguous forms. Often, there is the suggestion of a central figure with branching arms, legs, and feet. Leaf or flower shapes, hands, fingers, animal-like paws or tails might appear. Calligraphic marks and paint dribbles suggest sprouting roots. Phallic protuberances and invaginations evoke couplings or intersections. The field of paint does not usually extend to the canvas edge, implying a discreet event or experience limited and defined by the brushwork itself. The texture or touch of the canvas is emphasized in the thick build-up of pigment. The ambiguity of forms and gestural markings evince a sense of metamorphosis, inviting investigation and discovery.
SMALL PAINTINGS
Small paintings, executed quickly, are an important part of my studio practice. When I was an art student, a teacher gave me the challenge of producing work on small pieces of canvas in one hour's time. Knowing that I was using disposable canvas scraps and that I could quit after an hour was wonderfully liberating. The stipulations freed me from psychological interferences like intention, subject, technique, finished product, etc. I have learned that working in this impulsive, intuitive, gestural manner allows for surprises and keeps my painting fresh. I have continued this exercise with modifications. Instead of canvas scraps, I work on prepared paper mounted onto boards that I can easily move around the studio. I work on each small painting for only a few minutes at a time, allowing the work to develop over several sessions before reaching a resolution. Finding something new and unexpected in the paint is infinitely more interesting to me than trying to paint what I think I know.
DRAWINGS
Recently, I have been making work on paper that I call rubbed drawings. Placing vellum or Evolon paper over my thickly textured paintings and rubbing the surface with compressed charcoal or oil stick, I am able to produce a tracing of the surface below. Occasionally, the paper is first prepared with random daubs of paint or toned with thin washes, creating underlying and contrasting marks and shapes. These drawings are highly textured and evoke tracings from primitive stonewall carvings or traditional gravestone rubbings. The rubbed drawings create a record or haptic translation of my earlier work just as rubbings from ancient caves or headstones reveal the memory of a past life etched into the stone. The impulse to create a record of our human activity and the desire to memorialize lives lived are as old as recorded history. Creating rubbed drawings from my paintings allows me to further explore the human need to translate and record, to contemplate and memorialize.
SCULPTURE
Working three-dimensionally, I combine plaster, clay, wood, paper mâché and cardboard with found objects to create smaller-scale assemblages. The found objects consist of various inanimate substances such as metal, glass or plastic and are often recognizable everyday articles such as rubber balls, electric chords or plastic wheels. Evidence of sensuous life: feathers, animal bones, twigs, tree bark, flower and leaf forms are also incorporated. The frequent use of bronze and iron metallic paint enhanced with patina or rust activator evokes a temporal element and contrasts further with the natural elements. Similar to my paintings, the three-dimensional works often evoke a central upright figure with branching arms and sprouting roots and feature a dynamic of contrasting textures, shapes and references. The juxtaposition of inanimate “man-made” or inert elements with those of the natural world invites a transformative play or metamorphosis, one grounded in a sensuous embodied experience.
Solo Exhibitions
2022 New Paintings, Art Now Media on Artsy.net
2019 “Beyond the Paint,” ChaShaMa Artist Space, NYC, NY
“Texture,” Paintings by Kathleen Shaver at MEBL, NYC, NY
“New Work: Oil Paintings on Paper,” The Burrison Gallery, The University of Pennsylvania, PA
2018 “Paint,” Guest Artist: the Sofitel Hotel, Philadelphia, PA
2016 New Paintings @RAW, Reading Art Works, Reading, PA
Kathleen Shaver at the LaGuardia Galleries of Fine Art, LaGuardia Community College, Long Island City, NY
"Works on Paper" at the Cosmopolitan Club, Philadelphia, PA
"Small Abstractions," at the Burrison Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, PA
2015 "Back to Eden," Works on Paper at The Grand Opera House, Wilmington, DE
"Serial," New Paintings at the University City Arts League, Philadelphia, PA
"New Work @ RAW," Reading Art Works, Reading PA
"Kathleen Shaver at Industrious,” Philadelphia, PA
"The Structure of Chaos," The Hall, Crane Arts Building, Philadelphia, PA
2014 "Works on Paper," The Burrison Gallery, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
"Recent Paintings @ RAW," Reading Art Works, Reading, PA
2012 Solo Exhibition, Third Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2011 “Abstractions,” The Burrison Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Completion of permanent installation: "The History of Nursing as Seen Through the Lens of Art," at University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
2004 “New Works,” Rodger LaPelle Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
1992 “Stories and Words,” Rodger LaPelle Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
1991 “Passages (Text and Tradition),” Rodger LaPelle Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
1989 “Growing Time,” Rodger LaPelle Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
Recent Group Exhibitions
2022
Art Now Media Spring Exhibit: A Time for Hope and Renewal
Inaugural Exhibition of Gallery Artists, Art Now Media on Artsy.net
2021
The Era of Change, The Visionary Projects online exhibit
Fresh Perspectives, Part I, London Paint Club online exhibit
2021 Works on Paper, Medford Arts Center, online exhibit
Aesthetics, Galeria Azur Madrid
2020
On the Surface, Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA (Juror: Neal Walsh)
2020 International Juried Show, Bowery Gallery, NYC (Juror: Janice Nowinski)
Encounters, Alfa Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ
2019
“100 Birthday Celebration,” Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, Woodstock, NY
Annual Alumni Exhibition, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia (Juried by curator, Emily Zilber)
2018
“Bob and Weave,” InLiquid @ Archer Law, Philadelphia, PA
The Woodmere Annual: 77th Juried Exhibition, The Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia (Juror: Syd Carpenter)
Annual Alumni Exhibition, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia (Juried by Molly Dougherty)
Oil Color and Mixed Media: An Expanse of Expressionism, Alfa Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ
155th Exhibit of Small Oil Paintings, The Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA
"Dig," Hamilton Street Gallery, Bound Brook, NJ
'The Physicality of Painting," the Inliquid Gallery at the Crane Arts Building, Philadelphia, PA (Curated by artist, Mat Tomezsko)
2017
Annual Alumni Exhibition, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia (Jurors: Tory Savery, Founding Director of Savery Gallery, Philadelphia
and Robert Chaney, Director of Curatorial Affairs, ICA, Philadelphia)
The 74th Annual Juried Painting Show, Cheltenham Center for the Arts, PA (Juried by Andrea Packard, Direct of List Gallery
at Swarthmore College, PA)
"Mythologies," Ann Street Gallery, Newburgh, NY (curated by Virginia Walsh, Director of Exhibitions, Ann Street Gallery)
Annual Spring Gala Exhibition, Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA (Juror: Ekaterina Popova, artist & publisher, Create! Magazine)
"Big Idea," invitational exhibit, The Painting Center, NYC
"Conversations," Legend Galleries, Philadelphia, PA (sculpture exhibit juried by artist Marc Blumthal)
"Featured Artist in Residence," The Logan Hotel, Philadelphia, PA
2016
"Strokes of Genius," Maryland Federation of Art, Circle Gallery, Annapolis, MD (Juror: Joey P. Manlapaz)
Main Line Art Center Spring Gala Exhibition (Juried by Sharon Ewing, Director of Gross McLeaf Gallery), Philadelphia, PA
Abington Art Center Annual Juried Exhibition (Juried by Leah Modigliani) Abington, PA
"Lowe House Exhibit", Maryland House of Delegates, Annapolis, MD
Commissions
1989 "Pink Shoe, Blue Shoe," commissioned by Dr. James Gurr for his wife, Dr. Noreen J. Hickok
2011 “The History of Nursing as Seen Through the Lens of Art”, a permanent installation of 27 paintings at the School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, PA
Bibliography
https://thevisionaryprojects.com/exhibit
https://londonpaintclub.com/2021/01/04/lpc-group-exhibition-fresh-perspectives-pt-1/
https://www.medfordarts.com/2021-works-on-paper-juried-exhibition-online.html#gallery
Alfa Art Gallery Interview with Kathleen Shaver: https://youtu.be/lebPwR-4wQw
https://chashama.org/event/texture-paintings-by-kathleen-shaver-at-mebl/
https://chashama.org/event/beyond-the-paint/
https://www.inquirer.com/news/rodger-lapelle-david-lynch-old-city-art-galleries-20200822.html
http://timeshudsonvalley.com/stories/modern-interpretations-of-classical-myths,958?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inquirer.com/philly/business/20160912_The_Boardroom.html%3foutputType=amp
https://orangetourism.org/events/art-exhibit-opening-mythology-2017-04-19/
https://www.cranearts.com/2015/09/inliquid-presents-kathleen-shaver/
https://www.thepaintingcenter.org/bigidea
https://woodmereartmuseum.org/experience/exhibitions/the-woodmere-annual-77th-juried-exhibition
https://www.dailyfreeman.com/lifestyle/art-beat-mythology-a-group-exhibition-on-display-at-ann-street-gallery-in-newburgh/article_24d00091-8bac-5e06-8b41-a8a2614076d3.amp.html
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/things-to-do/2018/03/29/beneath-surface-artists-seek-deeper-truth/462056002/
http://www.chestnuthilllocal.com/2018/02/08/hiller-nursing-a-career-as-brilliant-abstract-artist/
"Big Idea,"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmXxfKPE9AY
https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/live/profiles/14728-kathleen-shaver
http://ucreview.com/serial-new-works-by-kathleen-shaver-exhibition-on-view-october-rdnovem-p5968-86.htm
http://inliquid.org/happenings/inliquid-projects/crane-hall/the-structure-of-chaos-crane-hall/
http://creativephl.org/post/115047844304/all-thats-jazz-art-in-city-hall-philadelphia-jazz-apprec
http://www.namta.org/files/public/Palette_10-22-14.pdf, 23-25.
"Nurses, If Florence Could See Us Now," documentary film directed by Kathy Douglas,1hr 32m, 2013. https://vimeo.com/46329776
Len Lear, "Marking a Living as an Artist," Chestnut Hill Local, October 9, 2014
Barry Nemett, “Juror’s Statement,” XL-XS, Extra Large & Extra Small Formats: A National Juried Exhibition Catalogue, Maryland Federation of Art, 2012. 2-3
“Nursing Is an Art,” UpFront, a bi-annual publication of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Fall, 2011. Inside cover, 82-83
“A Legacy in Images,” Impact, published by Penn Nursing Science, University of Pennsylvania, 2011. 14-15 and back cover
“Nursing is an Art,” Celebrating 125 Years of Nursing at Penn, published by Penn Nursing Science, University of Pennsylvania, 2011. 1-7
Deanna Kerley,“Nursing School Celebrates 125 Years,” The Daily Pennsylvanian, October 22, 2011.
http://thedp.com/index.php/article/2011/10/nursing_schools_125th_anniversary_celebrated_with_mural_unveiling
R.B. Strauss, “Chestnut Hill Artist’s Work Still Powerful After a 10-Year Hiatus,” Chestnut Hill Local, February 19. 2004.
Burt Wasserman, “Natural Selection,” Prime Time, December, 2003. 6
Meg Cohen Ragas, “Urban Renewal,” Philadelphia Magazine, October, 2000. 99
Howard Shapiro, “Gallery Crawl,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Travel and Leisure, May 1993
Edward J. Sozanski, “Rodger LaPelle,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 23, 1992. 22
Rita Beyer, “First Fridays at Old City Galleries a New Tradition,” Chestnut Hill Local, October 8, 1992. 39-40
Laura G. Bellet, “Buying Art: for Love or Money?,” Personal Finance Quarterly, Summer, 1990. 6-8
Rita Beyer, “Art Now Project and City’s Role in Art,” Chestnut Hill Local, May 10, 1990. 49-57
Edward J. Sozanski, “Painting In the New Year with Works From Old Ones,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 11, 1990. 5-F
Edward J. Sozanski, “Interaction Between Art and Life,” The Philadelphia Inquirer Weekend, July 13, 1990.
Rita Beyer, “Reality Takes Many Forms In LaPelle Exhibit,” Chestnut Hill Local, January 25, 1990. C-1
Tom Csaszar, “Kathleen Shaver at Rodger LaPelle Galleries,” New Art Examiner, November, 1990.
http://articles.philly.com/1989-09-23/news/26102980_1_museum-show-salon-des-official-salon
Rita Beyer, “Young Chestnut Hill Artist Showing Works at LaPelle,” Chestnut Hill Local, March 16, 1989. 41
Published Writings
“Artist Statement,” 8th Annual Human Rights Art Exhibit 2013 Catalogue, Richard Lubben, editor (McAllen, TX: South Texas College, 2013): 10
“The Artists: Kathleen Shaver,” Contemporary Philadelphia Artists, Philadelphia Art Now Project with the William Penn Foundation (Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1990): 150
Catalogues
8th Annual Human Rights Art Exhibit, edited by Richard Lubben, South Texas College, TX, 2013
Contemporary Philadelphia Artists: A Juried Exhibition, Forward by Anne d’Harnoncourt, George D. Widener Director, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, 1990
“On the Surface, A National Juried Exhibition,” Attleboro Art Museum, 2020 https://indd.adobe.com/view/44138496-ec5a-4fb4-8865-e05d918a8ea2
Collections
Private Collections
Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Park Towne Place Museum District Residences
PNC Bank
South Texas College Human Rights Permanent Art Collection
Your Part-Time Controller, LLC
Awards
2016
Third Place, "Strokes of Genius," Maryland Federation of Art (Juror: Joey P. Manlapez,curator, artist and Associate Faculty at Corcoran College of Art and Design)
Honorable Mention, Lowe House Exhibition, Maryland House of Delegates, Annapolis, MD (Juror: Matt Klos, Associate Professor of Humanities and Visual Arts, Anne Arundel Community College, MD)
2013
Juror's Choice Award, Abington Art Center Juried Show (Juror: Ross L. Mitchell, Executive Director, Violette de Masia Foundation, PA)
Merit Award, Human Rights Art Exhibition, South Texas College (Juror: Richard Lubben, Associate Professor of Art, South Texas College)
2012
Outstanding Achievement Award, Alumni Association of the HUP School of Nursing for creation of The History of Nursing as Seen Through the Lens of Art
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Faculty and Alumni Legacy Award for creation of The History of Nursing as Seen Through the Lens of Art
Juror's Choice Award, "XL-XS Extra Large Extra Small Formats, " Maryland Federation of Art (Juror: Barry Nemett, Chair of the Painting Department, Maryland Institute College of Art, MD)
Juror's Choice Award, "Strokes of Genius, " Maryland Federation of Art (Juror: Mark Karnes, Maryland Institute College of Art, MD)
1993
Second Prize, "And the Women Danced: Jewish Women's Spiritual Leadership," Borowsky Gallery (Jurors: Nancy Hellebrand, Photographer; Elsa Honig-Fine, Publisher of Women’s Art Journal; Judith Tannenbaum, Associate Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, PA)
1990
Leona Karp Braverman Award for Painting, Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Jurors: Lisa Dennison, Associate Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC; Grace Hartigan, Artist)
1989
Barbara Specker Gorsen Award, 49th Annual Awards Painting Exhibition, Cheltenham Center for the Arts (Juror: Terrie Frances Sultan, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
1988
Purchase Award, Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
1987
Mary Butler Memorial Award in Painting, Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Jurors: Linda Bantel, Director of the Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Judith Stein, Associate Curator, Thomas Chimes, Artist, Philadelphia, PA)
1985
Philadelphia Drawing Competition, Honorable Mention (Juror: Al Ordover, Director of Freidus Ordover Gallery, Soho, NY)
Education
Diploma in Nursing, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
BFA with Honors in Painting, Moore College of Art & Design
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Continuing Education