John Shea graduated with a BFA from the School for American Crafts at RIT in Rochester, NY in 2011. From there he traveled to Montevallo, AL to be a resident artist at the University of Montevallo. Afterward he moved to Portland, OR working for Bullseye Glass and Mudshark Studios. He moved to Madison, WI to attend graduate school at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and recently graduated with an MFA. John has taught at RIT, Hamilton College, and is most recently teaching at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he is currently living. His work is currently represented by Officine Saffi in Europe and Hostler Burrows in the USA.
Visit John Shea’s website and Instagram page.
Featured work
Selected works, 2018-2021
The work is a reflection of my own personal interest in the way that abstraction acts as both an indicator of individual as well as a kind of collective meaning that coalesces around random matter. Working with the idea that abstraction is built not on resemblance but rather the disparate nature of the elements that make it up. That the power of abstraction comes from the ability to have a coherent whole despite the tensions inherent in disparate components. I want the pieces to be both something that is and isn’t recognizable at the same time. Focusing on disruptions in form, each piece looks to remind us of something it is not, and tries to get us to see the object for what it really is.
