Joel Shapiro
Joel Shapiro
Born in New York City in 1941, Joel Shapiro has explored the possibilities of sculptural form throughout his forty-five-year career. Since his first solo exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery in 1970, his work has been the subject of numerous one-person and retrospective exhibitions at institutions, most recently Joel Shapiro: The Bronzes (2018), an ambitious presentation focused on the artist’s large-scale bronze works at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Other exhibitions have been held at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (1980); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1982); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1985); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (jointly with the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, 1995–96); the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2001); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2011); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas (2016); and Kunstmuseum Wintherthur (2017). Shapiro’s work can be found in numerous public collections in the United States and abroad, including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Tate Gallery, London; IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
In 1993 Shapiro installed a permanent work, Loss and Regeneration, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Other prominent commissions and works in public space include Conjunction, installed in 1999 at the United States Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, and Now, installed in 2013 at the new U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China, both commissions by the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies; For Jennifer (2011) commissioned by the Denver Art Museum; and Blue (2019) for The REACH at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Shapiro was elected to the Swedish Royal Academy of Art in 1994 and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1998. The French Minister of Culture awarded Shapiro the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2005, and in 2013 he was honored with the National Art Award for Outstanding Achievement by Americans for the Arts. In April 2015 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture by the International Sculpture Center.
Joel Shapiro lives and works in New York City.
Selected Works
Video
Joel Shapiro at Dominique Lévy New York
March 22, 2017
JOEL SHAPIRO
New York
October 28, 2016 – December 22, 2017
Exhibitions
Museum Exhibitions
Selected Press
VernissageTV | Art Basel Miami Beach 2019
December 5, 2019
This is a virtual tour of Art Basel in Miami Beach 2019 on the occasion of press preview on December …
FAD Magazine | Artworks by World’s Leading Artists Donated to Make-A-Wish® UK Charity Auction
September 19, 2019
The charity auction will feature more than 20 new and recent artworks by some of the world’s leading …
Wisconsin State Journal | Rising Above Convention With Joel Shapiro's Bronzes
September 17, 2018
When “Joel Shapiro: The Bronzes” opens with a reception at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art …
Art Agency, Partners | Magical Thinking with Sculptor Joel Shapiro
June 28, 2018
The American artist Joel Shapiro has been pioneering new forms in sculpture for more than five decades. …
Artsy | New Fairs and Blue Chip Dealers Descend on San Francisco to End Debate Over City’s Art Market
January 10, 2017
Lévy says she was compelled to participate in the fair after “witnessing the energy and the support …
Village Voice | Joel Shapiro
November 8, 2016
The challenge with abstraction is that you can always deny it. Look hard enough at any non-figurative …
studio international | Joel Shapiro: ‘As an artist, you are synthesising the stuff around you in a way that engages you’
November 7, 2016
The influential American sculptor, now in the fifth decade of his career, brings out his wood wall reliefs …
Artsy | 15 New York Gallery Shows You Need to See This November
November 1, 2016
Shapiro’s facility with color and space shines in this pairing of his early works and a new installation. …
Blouin Artinfo | Notes on a Sculpture
October 1, 2016
Mention of the name Joel Shapiro typically elicits pause, consideration, and always respect -- likely …
Cultured | Tipping the Scale
October 1, 2016
“I’m not interested in strict rules,” says Joel Shapiro with a youthful smirk. “ I can’t abide …
THE ART NEWSPAPER | The seriousness of a child at play: Kenneth Baker on Joel Shapiro at the Nasher Sculpture Center
July 1, 2016
Anyone who saw early presentations of Joel Shapiro’s sculpture in New York will remember a small untitled …
The Dallas Morning News | Joel Shapiro’s 20 Elements serves as a sublime entry point to his very cool show at the Nasher
June 4, 2016
When one enters the Nasher Sculpture Center these days, there is an immediate sense of familiarity. It’s …
The Wall Street Journal | ‘Joel Shapiro’ Review: Forms in Flight
May 23, 2016
Instead of giving Joel Shapiro another retrospective—this 74-year-old sculptor has had several—the …
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