David Shannon

David Shannon grew up in Spokane, WA and graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena with a BFA in illustration in 1983. David began his career working as a free-lance editorial illustrator in New York City. His work has appeared in many publications including Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone, as well as on numerous book jackets and theater posters. David has also received international acclaim as the author and/or illustrator of over 40 books for children, including No, David! and A Bad Case of Stripes. For the past several years he’s been concentrating on abstract oil paintings which have been exhibited in a number of group shows including Art in the Time of Corona online at Dab Art and a solo show, Incognition, at the SPARC gallery in South Pasadena.

These pieces explore the elements of a painting within a minimalized set of criteria. Figure/ground is reduced to no more than a few common still-life objects, usually black, placed in a simple setting of grays and muted colors. This tends to equalize the focus of the painting across all its elements rather than just the main object(s). Composition, line, form, color, light, and surface texture are generally on equal footing with content.

The concept for these began as an expression of the times we live in. They’re immediately recognizable as traditional still-life paintings, but the introduction of black objects tells the viewer that something is wrong here. The objects themselves are standard and classic subjects – fruit, flowers, bottles, a water pitcher – that tend to symbolize life, culture, perhaps even joy, were they rendered in full color. The blackness gives the objects an iconic feel. It allows them to suggest something other than a piece of fruit or a bottle. The are both densely solid and an empty void. The simple compositions contain subtle, unexpected incongruities – lines that should meet don’t, forms that usually overlap instead coincide, edges are lost and found, angles aren’t always in perspective. These incongruities create a tension within the painting that reflects the challenge of encountering irrationality on a daily basis. Surprisingly, the paintings don’t feel as grim as one would think. Beauty still exists in the muted colors, pleasing shapes, variations of surface texture, and even the reflected light that defines the black objects.