Tim Shaw is one of the great storytellers of British art. No one takes on the contradictions of representation through making in a post-industrial age in quite the way he does. Shaw ploughs a wilfully solitary, contradictory furrow.
Tim Shaw is one of the great storytellers of British art. No one takes on the contradictions of representation through making in a post-industrial age in quite the way he does. Shaw ploughs a wilfully solitary, contradictory furrow.
Schooled in heavy metal casting, part of the British tradition of monumental sculpture going back centuries, he attacks materials and subjects in a way that feels totally contemporary, creating environments which include sound, light and FX, drawing on rave culture. The tension between tradition and nowness, between solidity and nightmarish breakdown, is an organic part of this artist's worldview, whether he's looking at the atrocities of Abu Ghraib or the sense of primal ritual latent in the landscape surrounding his studio in the remote west of England.
Shaw's work is often political in nature as well as being both mythical and metaphysical. Connecting these elements is a sense that the work relates to both ancient and modern humanity. He works across a range of different mediums and scale, creating single free-standing forms, as well as large-scale, multi-sensory installations.
Mark Hudson
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014 Black Smoke Rising, touring exhibition - Mac Birmingham and Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Minotaur unveiling at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens
2013 Awaken From the Dream of Reality, Millennium, St Ives
2012 Parliament, Jam Records, Falmouth
Why bother with the truth when the myth is more important, Riflemaker, London
2011 The Origins of the Drummer, Millennium Gallery, St Ives
2008 Casting a Dark Democracy, Kenneth Armitage Foundation, London
Future History, Goldfish Fine Art, Penzance
2006 No Title, Goldfish Fine Art, Penzance
2005 Truro Cathedral, Truro, Cornwall
2000 Broomhill Art Hotel, Broomhill, Devon
1999 Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall
1997 Duncan Campbell, London
1995 Duncan Campbell, London
Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall
1992 Albemarle Gallery, London
PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
2012 – The Green Man, Antony Estate, Torpoint
2011 - The Drummer, Cornwall Council, Lemon Quay, Truro
2008 - The Minotaur, The Royal Opera House, London
2004 - The Rites of Dionysus, Eden Project, Cornwall
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2014 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Out of Our Heads, Shoreditch Town Hall, London
Reflections of War, Flowers East, London
Shock and Awe, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Art14, London
2013 Limbo, The Old Coffin Factory, Truro
Dark Rooms, Old School Helston, Cornwall
2012 Launch Exhibition, Threadneedle Space, London
PiH Contemporaries Auction, Bonhams, London
Sculptors' Drawings, Pangolin Gallery, London
The Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy, London
2011 The Exquisite Trove, Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall
The Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy, London
2010 Material Worlds, F.E. McWilliams Gallery, Ireland
The House of Fairytales, Millennium Gallery, Cornwall
2009 In The Mix, Pangolin Gallery, London
Volta, Art Basel, Riflemaker Gallery
2008 London Art Fair, Islington, London
Mixed / No Theme, Goldfish Fine Art, Penzance
Spring Exhibition, 108 Fine Art, Harrogate
Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London
2007 Art Now Cornwall?, Goldfish Fine Art, Penzance
London Art Fair, Islington, London
Margins, Sherborne House Open 07, Sherborne, Dorset
Move, Goldfish Fine Art at Vyner Street, London
Politics Pays Back, Kowalsky Gallery @ DACS, London
Stuff Art, Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2006 Draws On – Painters vs. Sculptors, Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall
London Art Fair, Islington, London
Spontaneous Combustion, Newlyn Society of Artists Summer Show, Goldfish Fine Art
Spring Show, Goldfish Fine Art, Penzance
Visiting Picasso, Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall
2005 Winter Show, Newlyn Society of Artists, Cornwall
Christmas Show, Goldfish Fine Art, Penzance
Critic’s Choice, Newlyn Society of Artists, Lemon Street Gallery, Truro
London Art Fair, Islington, London
Mixed Show, Byard Art, Cambridge
Mixed Show, Mullan Gallery, Belfast
Newlyn Society of Artists Easter Show, Thompsons Gallery, London
Royal Ulster Academy, Ulster Museum, Ulster
