Sharon Shapiro

𝓓𝓲𝓸𝓻𝓪𝓶𝓪 (𝓞𝓻, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓤𝓷𝓹𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝓪 𝓜𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓽𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝓛𝓲𝓸𝓷), oil on canvas, 60 x 44 inches Last fall, I met up with my friend Rickey Laurentiis in New Orleans. We had talked about her modeling, and without overthinking it, we walked around Jackson Square and took some photos. I kept returning to one of her lying in tall grass with her braids sprawled out, and when I got home, I collaged her into a mountain lion diorama. I shifted the scene into a full-moon nocturne, with indigo and violet, and cut a vivid seam of red-pink through it to signify a temperature shift, or something closer to a bruise beneath the surface. A lion rests on a rock in the foreground, and her cub stands nearby. Both look toward her as she lies in the blue grass with her arms folded across her chest, completely at ease. I was thinking about tending, fostering, and a family formed in an unlikely terrain. Painting the rocks took longer than I anticipated, but layer by layer, they became a kind of altar. Something solid enough to hold this bond. Rickey has since written a beautiful poem in response. I can’t share it yet, but I’m deeply moved and excited by the conversation it has opened between us. 🌒 #diorama #oilpainting #paintersandpoets #contemporaryfigurativepainting #womenpaintingwomen

a new painting that I finished last month 🌈 𝕊𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕥 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕜𝕣𝕒𝕤, 𝕠𝕚𝕝 𝕠𝕟 𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕧𝕒𝕤, 𝟛𝟞 𝕩 𝟜𝟞 𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕤 #womenpaintingwomen #figurativeart #oilpainting #contemporarypainting #colorspectrum #chakras #slingshot

𝓝𝓪𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓪𝓵 𝓗𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 (2025, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches) This is the first in a new series that draws from museum dioramas—but it also builds on a body of work I’ve been developing over the past year. These paintings explore how women and wild animals are staged in American visual culture—romanticized, endangered, and displayed as objects of wonder or control. I’m not repeating that script but pressing against it, presenting my figures as both strong and vulnerable, fully alive within their terrain. 
She stands in a late-summer flower bed, ringed by oryx—twelve eyes catching the light, somewhere between myth and memory, watchfulness and rest. #contemporarypainting #womenpaintingwomen #oilpainting #figurativepainting #naturalhistory #dioramas

I’ve been working towards my first solo exhibition on the west coast since last fall. 𝑻𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒅 is now on view at @spectrumfineart in Seattle and the opening reception is this Thursday 5/14 from 6-9pm. I will be there and would love to see you if you’re in the Seattle area, and please share with any friends that are! The show is up through June 20th. My friend @iandillard came over to my studio and took a few photos before the work shipped out. 💖🎨 💞

New show begins this weekend! Spectrum is excited to welcome Sharon Shapiro to Seattle. Her collection of paintings, "Tender Wild," is a magical entre into femininity that brings color and imagination to the walls. Be sure to stop by and see it. Artist Reception is next Thursday, May 14 // 6-8 p.m. and Sharon will be there!

A new painting from 𝑻𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒅, my upcoming solo show at @spectrumfineart in Seattle. The opening reception is May 14th from 6-9 pm. I will be there and hope to see some of my west coast friends 🌆🌲🧡 Thank you Vida Sabbaghi, founder of @cope_nyc (and curator for ℂ𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕚𝕒𝕝 𝕊𝕢𝕦𝕒𝕕: 𝕀𝕟 𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℍ𝕠𝕦𝕤𝕖 at @penandbrushnyc ) for writing some insightful words about my work. 𝑩𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑺𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐, acrylic gouache on paper, 26 x 20 inches #soloexhibition #contemporarypainting #tenderwild #figuarativepainting #newwork

𝑺𝒌𝒊𝒏 𝑰𝒏 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆, 2026 On view in 𝙏𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙒𝙞𝙡𝙙 Spectrum Fine Art, Seattle May 7 - June 20 #newwork #tenderwild #seattleart #soloexhibition @spectrumfineart

Years ago, I met Sharon Shapiro at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts when I was very much a wee young one, and we took up an immediate friendship. I’ve been so privileged since then to watch her career as a painter fly, over these years, and she has witnessed my own transformations—from one painfully shy to someone much more barechested & free. I’m so glad. I love how paintings tell.

Botanicals (oil on panel, 20” x 16”)

I’ve been working on finishing up some paintings for my upcoming solo exhibition at @spectrumfineart in Seattle this May. 🌈 🎨 🌈 I took photos of these two models (who i’ve been lucky to collaborate with several times) in my studio one winter night several years ago. I often let the photos sit for months, sometimes years, before I translate the image into paint. In this process, color becomes less about direct observation and more about transformation. I’m most interested in how color can hold tension between what is seen and what is felt, where the familiar slips into something slightly altered, unsettled, and alive. #oilpainting #figurativepainting #spectrumfineart #newwork #soloshow

𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒘𝒊𝒇𝒆, oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches Last painting of 2025 👋 and most recent one that sold 🔴 I love collaborating with models, especially when I capture a spontaneous gesture that happens during the shoot. Her instinct to unexpectedly lick the ax as a taboo gesture conflating fear and desire was💯 Here’s to more ax-licking in 2026! 🥂 #oilpainting #feralwoman #figurativepainting #womenartists #tradwifelife

No Man’s Land Sharon Shapiro Oil on Canvas 46 x 36 inches #ContemporaryPainting #WomenArtists #ContemporaryArt #CollectHowYouWantTheFutureToLook #Matriarchy

𝔹𝕖𝕘𝕘𝕒𝕣𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 ℂ𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕤𝕖𝕣𝕤, oil on canvas, 44 x 60 inches 🦌🐺🌈⛓️🪚 Recently I’ve been reimagining wilderness dioramas, which come with an inherited script. As this figure and the animals took shape, the woman started to feel like a mix of warrior and reluctant heroine, someone moving between how she’s perceived and who she actually is. The chainsaw shifts the scene as it pushes against the familiar stories we attach to women in wild spaces, where they’re cast as innocent, threatened, or ornamental. Once it entered her hands, the tableau stopped behaving, and the whole landscape felt charged in a new way. The broad color bands have become something I love working with, helping me think out the emotional temperature of the scene and pushing the landscape into a mix of diorama, memory, and pop-culture dream. 🌈 #contemporarypainting #womenpaintingwomen #oilpainting #figurativepainting #diorama #beggarsandchoosers