Tim Shaw RA (b.1964)

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

We have known Tim Shaw and his art for some twenty-five years – since he was fresh out of

art school and sculpting the baroque ‘Middle World’ in a damp and drafty barn in Cornwall.

There was no question, even then, that he would become, as Mark Hudson wrote, ‘one of the

great storytellers of British art.’ Hudson rightly extols ‘the tension between tradition and

nowness, between solidity and nightmarish breakdown,’ for not only is Shaw one of our

great storytellers, he is one of our great sculptors. His classical prowess is reminiscent of

Rodin – as evidenced by his beautifully modelled bronzes – but his scope is fundamentally

other: it is primal, risky and political.

As a child in Northern Ireland, Shaw was dining with his mum when the pub blew up, and

while he revisits this memory directly in ‘Mother The Air is Blue, The Air is Dangerous’, it is

latent in his attention to war. ‘Casting a Dark Democracy’ – based on the iconic Abu Ghraib

prisoner, sculpted of heavy metal, barbed wire, Polythene and electrical cable, and

positioned above a reflecting pool of oil – was praised as ‘the most politically charged yet

poetically resonant new work on show in London’. For years, we have watched as Shaw has

extended his materials from clay to fabric to plastic and oil, and now it is we who are being

watched by his ‘Breakdown Clown’ – an A.I. robot, 'sculpted in residency at the Käte

Hamburger Kolleg: Law is Culture. The renowned sculptor, Michael Sandle RA has declared

it 'a work of towering genius.’

Shaw is a Royal Academician, Fellow of The Royal British Society of Sculptors, Fellow of

Falmouth University, recipient of The Kenneth Armitage Award, the Royal Academy

Sculpture Award 2015, and the Threadneedle Prize 2008. Public commissions include The

Rites of Dionysos for The Eden Project, The Minotaur for The Royal Opera House and The

Drummer for Lemon Quay, Truro.

CV

EDUCATION

1985 – 89 – Falmouth College of Art, BA Hons Fine Art, First Class

1984 – 85 – Manchester Polytechnic, Art Foundation

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016 – The Birth of Breakdown Clown, Kate Hamburger Kolleg for Advanced Study in the Humanities of Law as Culture, Bonn, Germany

2015 – Mother The Air is Blue, The Air, is Dangerous, F E McWilliam Gallery, Belfast, N. Ireland Time Got Kicked Around, Kappatos Gallery, Athens, Greece

2014 – Black Smoke Rising, touring exhibition, Mac Birmingham, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, UK

2013 – Awaken from the Dream of Reality, Millennium, Cornwall Parliament, Jam Records Falmouth (curated by Olivia Gray)

2012 – Soul Snatcher Possession, Riflemaker Contemporary Art Gallery, London

2011 – The Origins of The Drummer, Millennium Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall

2009 – Riflemaker presents at The Kenneth Armitage Foundation, London

2008 – Casting A Dark Democracy, Kenneth Armitage Foundation, London Future History, Goldfish Fine Art, Cornwall

2006 – No Title, Goldfish Fine Art, Cornwall

2005 – Fragments from the Middle World, Turo Cathedral, Cornwall 1999 – La Corrida: Dreams In Red, Falmouth Public Art Gallery, Cornwall

1997 – La Corrida: Dreams In Red, Duncan Campbell Gallery, London

1995 – Fragments from Middle World, Duncan Campbell Gallery, London

1992 – Fragments from Middle World, Albemarle Gallery, London

GROUP EXHIBITIONS | SELECTED

2016 – House of St. Barnabas, London Royal Hibernian Academy, 186th Annual Exhibition, Guest Artist, Dublin, Ireland

2015 – Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Homo Sapiens Beaux Arts

2014 – Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Reflections of War, Flowers Gallery, London Back From the Front, RWA, Bristol Out of Our Heads, Shoreditch Town Hall, London Tremenheer Sculpture Garden, Penzance, Cornwall

2013 – Rituals are tellers of us, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance Limbo, Truro Arts Festival, Cornwall Dark Rooms, Old School Heston, UK

2012 – Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Sculptor’s Drawings, Works on Paper, Pangolin Gallery, London PiH Contemporaries Auction, Bonhams, London Launch Exhibition, Threadneedle Space, London

2011 – Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London The Exquisite Trove, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance Sculpture Show, Mullan Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland

2010 – The House of Fairy Tales, Millennium Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall Material Words, F. E McWilliam Gallery, Northern Ireland

2009 – Volta, Art Basel, Riflemaker Gallery, London In The Mix, Pagolin Gallery, London The Sculpture Show, Mullan Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland

2008 – Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London Icons,108 Fine Art, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, UK

2007 – Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Politics Pays Back, Kowalski Gallery @ DACS, London Move, Goldfish Fine Art at Vyner Street, London Margins, Sherborne House Open 07, Sherborne, Dorset, UK

PUBLIC SCULPTURE COMMISIONS:

2012 – The Green Man, Antony Estate, Torpoint, Cornwall

2009 - 11 – The Drummer, Lemon Quay, Truro, Cornwall

2008 – The Minotaur, The Royal Opera Hose, London

2000- 04 – Rites of Dionysus, The Eden Project, Cornwall

AWARDS & PRIZES

2015/16 – Elected Honorary member of the Royal West of England Academy Resident Artist Fellowship: Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study ‘Law as Culture’ Bonn, Germany Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

2014 – Resident Artist, Kappatos Gallery Athens

2013 – Elected Member to the Royal Academy Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors Elected Honorary Fellow, Falmouth University

2008 – Selectors’ Award: Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries

2006 – Kenneth Armitage Sculpture Fellowship Award

2005 – The Mullan Prize, Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition Prince of Wales Bursary Award, The British School at Athens

2003 – First Prize, Millfield Open

1997 – Prize Winner, Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London

1996 – Delfina Studio Trust Award, Residency at Casa Manilva, Spain

COLLECTIONS

Arts Council Carew-Pole Garden Trust David Roberts Foundation Delfina Foundation Eden Project Boyle Civic Collection Cornwall County Council Kenneth Armitage Foundation Falmouth Art Gallery Collection British School at Athens UCA Farnham Collection

PRESS & PUBLICATIONS | SELECTED

2015 – Shaw, Tim and Indra Khanna. 2015. Tim Shaw. Bristol: Samson & Co. Art, Memory and the Aftermath of War by Verity Lewis. Editor Paul Gough, Issuu.com

2014 – His dark Materials, Laura Gascoigne, RA Magazine Future Vision, Charlotte Mullins , Telegraph Magazine Reflection of War, Flower East, Gabriel Coxhead, Time Out NakedButSafe Magazine September NBS#7, Interview with Dr.Sozita Goudouna Black Smoke Rising, Exhibition review, Aestheticamagazine.com Featured Artist,Jackdaw Magazine

2013 – Awaken from the Dream of Reality, Millennium The Origins of The Drummer, Millennium, Catalogue

2012 – Aqnb online article: Soul Snatcher Possession

2011 – The Shape of things to come: new sculpture, Brian Sewell, Evening Standard It’s not all doom and gloom at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Brian Sewell, Evening Standard The Genuine Article, Cornwall Today Roger Taylor unveils controversial Cornish statue in Truro, Western Morning News

2009 – The Threadneedle Prize at the Mall Galleries, Financial Times The New Curiosity Shop, GQ, Sophie Lewis Casting A Dark Democracy review, Dazed magazine online Casting A Dark Democracy review, Art Forum, Gilda Williams

2008 – Casting A Dark Democracy review, Financial Times, Jackie Wullschlager Casting A Dark Democracy, Critic’s Choice, FT Casting A Dark Democracy review, Time Out, Francis Gooding Casting A Dark Democracy, Critic’s Choice, Time Out Future History, Goldfish, Catalogue The Genuine Article, Cornwall Today, Alex Wade Penzance Turns Regeneration into a Fine Art, The Observer, Alex Wade No Bull – the Covent Garden Monster, The Evening Standard, Georgina Littejohn

INSTALLATION VIEWS | SELECTED

Casting a Dark Democracy, 2008.

Ketamine (The Bisto Kids Gone Wrong), 2012.

Man on Fire, 2007- 2014.

Mother the Air is Blue, The Air is Dangerous, 2015.

WORKS | SELECTED

Maenad II

Bronze ed : 8, H : 20cm.

Maenad IV

Bronze ed : 8, H : 20cm.

Fertility Figure I

Bronze ed : 8, H : 45 cm

2008.

Fertility Figure III

Bronze ed : 8, H : 37 cm

2008.

Head ll,

Bronze ed : 8

H: 30cm

1997.

Breakdown Clown ( Portrait Head I )

H : 55cm ( inc. plinth )

Stocking , wig , filler

2013.

11th July,

Archival print on paper, ed : 3

24 x 33 cm ( each image )