Sarah Shaw
BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Shaw graduated from Falmouth College of Art in 2001 with a 1st Class Honours BA Degree in Fine Art and is now based in Brighton.
Sarah creates paintings that elegantly hover between figuration and abstraction while striving to inject them with enough room for personal interpretation. Her artwork speaks of a belief in the enduring vitality of painting as a primary form of communication. Shaw describes her inspiration as deriving from a quiet, almost meditative place.
Shaw explains that her process seems to always revolve around building up and stripping down of imagery, exploring different painterly languages then reducing down to the lowest denominator. By editing specific works and ideas she strives to capture the sense of a moment in time. These snatches of images, sounds and thoughts form a balance which she describes as ‘a painterly slideshow of memory’.
Shaw’s paintings often explore themes of beauty, history, the passing of time and the brevity of life.
Her work has been purchased by private collectors in the UK and abroad, and has been featured in many notable competitions. The artist has also been shortlisted for the prestigious Aesthetica and Threadneedle Art prizes.
Sarah recently was awarded the University of Chichester’s Award for Fine Art in the Regional Awards within the National Open Art Competition, where she has also been artist in residence.
Sarah primarily works in oil on canvas or paper but her paintings have also been translated into beautiful silkscreen and giclée limited-edition prints.
EXHIBITIONS
2023
ARCANA, Whistleblower Gallery, Brighton, UK Darker than a blackbird’s retina, Selected group show, Calder Art, Huddersfield, UK
Wales Contemporary 2023 (Cymru Gyfoes), Waterfront Gallery, Wales, UK
StART Art, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2023, Mall Galleries, London, UK
CIRCLE, Group Show, Whistleblower Gallery, Brighton, UK
Goddesses, Selected group show, Terrace Gallery, London, Lido Gallery, Margate, UK
2022
ING DiscerningEye, Mall Galleries, London, UK
A Rabblement of Bone and Rot, Artworks, Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK
Diableries, Huddersfield Art Gallery, West Yorkshire, UK
2021
Secret Histories, Excavations in Paint, Whistleblower Gallery, Brighton, UK
Pause, a solo commission of 16 Paintings. Twr Y Felin, St Davids, Wales, UK
2020
Made in Winter, group show, Brighton, UK
7 Contemporary Painters, Bermondsey Project Space, London, UK
Re-Visible, Four man show, Dean Clough, Halifax, UK
2019
I've Got Something Against You, solo show, Whistleblower Gallery, Brighton, UK
Dear Christine, curated group show, Newcastle, Swansea, London, UK
Disposition, curated group show, Bermondsey Project Space, London, UK
Aesthetica Art Prize, York, UK
RWA, 167th Open, Bristol
2018
AEDAS, Commission, Pembrokeshire Wales
LAE, curated group show, November, London, UK
Modern Masters, group show, Art Republic, Brighton UK
Jackson’s Art Prize, London, UK
Delphian Gallery Open Call, London, UK
White + Black, Group show, Whistleblower Gallery, March/April, Brighton, UK
Crossings, Southwell Minster, Nottingham, UK
Animus, New Ashgate Gallery, Surrey, UK
2017
Here we go! Group show, Whistleblower Gallery, Brighton
RHA, Dublin - SO Fine Art Collections, Dublin
Shortlisted Threadneedle Art Prize, London
Anima Mundi, Thiene, Italy
'Ceremony' TatArt, Barcelona
Winner 'British Women Artists' Prize
Ruth Borchard Portrait Prize
Curated group show, 'Ceremony' - No. 20 Arts, Islington, London
Curated group show, 'Painting (Now)' Studio One Gallery, London
Shortlisted Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize
Shortlisted Royal Academy Summer Show, London
2016
Pre-selected Aesthetica Art Prize, Worldwide
Winners show, National Open Art, Pallant House, Chichester, UK
National Open Art Competition Mercers Hall, London, UK
'Anglomania' Dadaprojects, Thiene, Italy
Chroma, Brighton, UK
The Other Art Fair with National Open Art, London, UK
2015
Dada Projects, Dada 8, Naked Eye Gallery, Brighton, UK
Pre-selected Threadneedle Art Prize, UK
Lacey Contemporary Inaugural Show, Holland Park, London, UK
National Open Art Competition, Royal College of Art, London, UK
Harrogate International Art Expo with NOA, UK
Art Gemini Prize, Menier Gallery, London, UK
'Heads', Curated group, Studio One Gallery, London, UK
'Connect2Colour', Lacey Contemporary, London, UK
'Shift', Solo show at ink_d gallery, Brighton, UK
AAF Battersea with Bo-Lee Gallery, London, UK
'Wanderlust', Lacey Contemporary, London, UK
London Art Fair, represented by ink_d gallery, Brighton, UK
2014
Artist in residence, National Open, Minerva Theatre, Chichester, UK
National Open Art, Somerset House, London, UK
Threadneedle Art Prize, Mall Galleries, London, UK
‘Mix’ Group show, Lawrence Alkin Gallery, London, UK
‘Parallels’ Solo show, Naked Eye Gallery, Brighton, UK
‘East Sussex Open’, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, UK
‘Cork Street Open’, London, UK
'Pushing Paint’, ink_d gallery, Brighton, UK
‘Parallels’ Solo show, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham, UK
Art Gemini Prize, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK
2013
Royal Institute of Oil Painters Open, Mall Galleries, London, UK
National Open Art Competition, UK
Minerva Theatre, Chichester, Royal College of Art, London, UK
Zeitgeist Open 2013, Zeitgeist Art Projects, London, UK
’32 Painters’, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, UK
2012
The Group, Winter Collection, Lawrence Alkin Gallery, London, UK
Aesthetica Art Prize, UK
Group show, ink_d gallery, Brighton, UK
Fine art auction and exhibition, Tooveys, in association with Horsham museum, Sussex, UK
