Shawn Camp grew up in Coeur dʼAlene, Idaho and completed an MFA in Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University. He then set out exploring, art-making, and exhibiting throughout the United States and abroad as an artist and musician. He settled in Austin, Texas where he is a member of the ICOSA artist collective and Professor of Painting at Austin Community College.
His works have been shown in the United States and internationally and are included in numerous public and private collections. He has been awarded artist residencies in the United States and Iceland and his work has been reviewed in Glasstire, The Austin American Statesman and The Austin Chronicle. His large-scale works have been commissioned for the City of Houston, Texas A&M University, Raymond James and a host of other institutions. Shawn’s paintings, videos and sound pieces exploit the effects of context and light on our perception - contrasting the ephemeral nature of awareness with the illusion of constancy.
"I make paintings, videos, light and sound pieces that explore the boundary between the physical and the transcendent. My recent acrylic paintings suggest air and space; imagery devoid of solid forms. That nothingness is framed through subtle geometric divisions and contradictory hints of color. Through translucence and refraction, the shimmering surfaces convey a sense of atmosphere and explore the mystery of light, matter, and space.
The back-lit mixed media paintings vacillate between transparency and opacity. In darkness, the physicality of the opaque white paint surrenders to the immateriality of translucent light. The prominent surface is simultaneously a solid wall and an innuendo of expanse opening fictively beyond. Through the capriciousness of reflected and emanating light, heightened extremes of light and dark emerge from changing planes sculpted into the surface, mining veins that run between artifice and honesty."
EDUCATION
1997 MFA, Painting, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
1997 BS, Psychology, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
1994 BFA, Studio Art, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
Selected Solo and two-person Exhibitions
2025 Lucitations: Shawn Camp and Vy Ngo, ICOSA Gallery, Austin, TX (two-person)
2024 Phase Transitions, LHUCA, Lubbock, TX (solo)
2023 Silence: New Work by Shawn Camp and Sarah Hirneisen, ICOSA Gallery, Austin, TX (two-person)
2022 Fragments and Memories, ICOSA Gallery, Austin, TX (two-person)
2020 Comity of Ghosts: Shawn Camp and Darcie Book, ICOSA Gallery, Austin, TX (two-person)
2020 Echoes and Spaces, ICOSA Gallery, Austin, TX (two-person)
2018 My Heaven and Hell Are the Same, Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX (solo)
2018 Equivocation, Northern-Southern Gallery, Austin, TX (solo)
2016 Shawn Camp: Angle of Refraction, Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX (solo)
2015 Aphotic Zone, Northern-Southern Gallery, Austin, TX (solo)
2014 Equal and Opposite, Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX (solo)
2012 Above Every Plane, Around Every Circle, Co-Lab, Austin, TX (solo)
2011 The Sum of All Parts, Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX (solo)
2010 Established Parameters, New Work by Shawn Camp, Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX (solo)
2009 Linear B, 1305 Position, Austin, TX (solo)
2006 Shawn Camp, Building 98 Ballroom, Marfa, TX (solo)
2006 PostGeography: Sliver Paintings and Dots, Artillery Gallery, Austin, TX (solo)
2002 Wet Paint: Fresh Work by Shawn Camp, Artfarm Gallery, Austin, TX (solo)
1999 Paintings and Drawings, 1998-1999, Clockwork Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (solo)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 New Texas Talent 31, Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas, TX
2024 Summer Break, ICOSA Gallery, Austin, TX
2024 Those Who Teach, TAG Gallery 4000, Austin, TX
2023 10th Annual Texas Juried Exhibition, Artspace 111, Fort Worth, TX
2022 A Transient Nature, Wright Gallery at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
2022 Spatial Harmony, ICOSA Gallery, Austin, TX
2022 A Transient Nature, Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, TX
2022 In-Between, Cloud Tree Gallery, Austin, TX
2021 Strictly Abstraction, TAG Gallery, Austin, TX
2021 Iridescence, Louisiana Art and Science Museum, Baton Rouge, LA
2021 Existential Evocations, Clamp Light Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2021 Postcards from Your Neighbor, Rockport Art Center, Rockport, TX
2021 En Masse, Massur Gallery, Spellerberg Projects, Lockhart, TX
2021 Texas Now, Artspace 111, Fort Worth, TX (online)
2021 The Austin Studio Tour, Austin, TX
2021 Red Dot Art Spree, Women and Their Work, Austin, TX
2020 Third Coast Biennial, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX
2020 Coping Mechanisms, ICOSA Gallery, Austin, TX
2020 Town and Country: 2020 Texas Painting Symposium Exhibition, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lubbock, TX
2020 Coping Mechanisms, ICOSA Gallery, Austin, TX
2020 Disrupted Geometries, Sarofim Fine Arts Gallery, Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX
2019 Warmly Persuasive, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Solo Show Down, Fort Worth Community Art Center, Fort Worth, TX
2019 Cardinal Kindreds, Rosalux Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2019 UNESCO Media Arts South by Southwest Exhibition, Central Library Gallery, Austin, TX
2018 Untitled (house) The Diane and Browne Goodwin Collection, Illinois State Museum, Lockport, IL
2017 Good Mourning Tis of Thee, Co-Lab Projects, Austin, TX
2017 Wide Open, Shawn Camp, Karen Maness, and Rebecca Bennet, Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, TX
2016 Going out of Business is Good For Business, Northern-Southern Gallery, Austin, TX
2015 FIVE DECADES, Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX
2014 ArtPrize, Grand Rapids, MI
2014 The Hunting Art Prize, Finalist Exhibition, Houston, TX
2014 Small Works Show, Greenpoint Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Windows 14, Northern-Southern Gallery, Austin, TX
2014 375 East, Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX
2013 Shawn Camp, Catherine Dudley, Katie Maratta, Sandra Fernandez, Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX
2013 Red Left Blue Right, Grayduck Gallery, Austin, TX
2013 Drawing Show, Pump Project Gallery, Austin, TX
2012 Post Linear: Shawn Camp, Beili Liu, Sandra Pratt, Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX
2012 Red Left Blue Right, Picture Farm Gallery, New York, NY.
2012 Cantanker: The End, Big Medium, Austin, TX
2012 2012 Texas Invitational, Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX
2012 Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
2011 TELOS, Austin Creative Alliance, Austin, TX (3-person)
2011 Shaping Boundaries: Martin, Longo, Camp, VAM Gallery, McAllen, TX
2010 Telos, Julia Butridge Gallery, Dougherty Arts Center, Austin, TX
2010 The Hunting Art Prize, Finalist Exhibition, Houston, TX
2010 Curious Room Summer Show, Flatbed Press, Austin, TX
2009 New American Talent 24, Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin, TX
2009 Anxiety, Pump Project Gallery, Austin, TX
2009 Yippie-Ki-Yay, Orville Hanchey Gallery, Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, LA
2009 Merge: Fusebox Festival Preview Event, Austin, TX
2009 Protege, Cultural Activities Center, Temple, TX
2008 Austin Modernists Past and Present, works by Ralph White and Shawn Camp, Austin, TX
2008 The People’s Gallery 2008, Austin City Hall, Austin, TX
2008 Size Matters: The Five Foot by Seven Foot Show, Pump Project Gallery, Austin, TX
2008 Chase Underground: A Subterranean Art Exhibition, Chase Tower, Austin, TX
2008 Telos, Christophers, Marfa, TX
2007 War: Artists Respond, Julia Butridge Gallery, Dougherty Arts Center, Austin, TX
2007 Prime, Christophers, Marfa, TX
2007 From Here to There, M2 Gallery, Houston, TX
2007 5x7 Show, Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
2007 Art Matters, Art Alliance Austin, Austin, TX
2007 Group Exhibition, Gallery 163, Dallas, TX
2007 Home, Austin Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, TX
2006 Layers, Shawn Camp and Caprice Pierucci Taniguchi, Davis Gallery, Austin, TX (2- person)
2006 Temporal Happiness, The Grand Opening and Closing of AVED Gallery, AVED Gallery, Austin, TX
2006 Basic Elements: Sensible and Intelligible Matter, Steven Dubov, Hank Waddell, and Shawn Camp, Christophers, Marfa, TX (3-person)
2006 Karaoke, Pump Project at the Shady Tree Studios, Austin, TX
2006 Art + Industry, Palm Springs, CA
2005 A Tribute to Geography, Geology, and Time, 507b, Austin, TX
2005 Just a Taste, Vin Gallery, Austin, TX
2004 Burn the Box Movement, Austin, TX
2004 Invited Artist, Texas Biennial 05 Benefit, Dougherty Arts Center, Austin, TX
2002 Hallowed Ground, Gallery Lombardi, Austin, TX
2001 Underneath a Queen Sized Bed, Holly Matter Modern Art, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Chroma, Marylin Philby Gallery, Evanston, IL
1999 Awkward, Multi-media exhibition and performance event, Kyozon/Co-exist Exhibition Space, Tokyo, Japan