“As an artist as well as an activist interested in minimalizing gentrification, in addition to depicting landmarks that no longer are, I am also depicting future landmarks that will never be.”
About Michael
“I am an artist, activist and producer and host of the contemporary art worlds-focused The Conversation Art Podcast. My work style is a mix of photographic, painterly and documentary. I have been documenting Los Angeles’ Westside and adjacent neighborhoods’ property development through cyanotypes, by producing handmade negatives using brush pens – primarily black, with a little bit of blue and red mixed in – which are the counterparts to the cyanotype ‘positives,’ a process that alludes to architectural blueprints but takes the format in a much messier, darker (figuratively speaking) direction. The negatives are intended to be displayed alongside their positives.
I’ve adapted the medium of cyanotypes to depictions of development as much as architecture, property as much as homes. Development never ceases on the Westside, including my own neighborhood of Del Rey (an area that is Marina del Rey-, Mar Vista- and Culver City-adjacent, and where, if I ever had to leave our rent-controlled apartment, I could never afford to live).
I’m currently invested in forward-looking development: the status-less apartment buildings planned along what’s referred to as the Crenshaw Corridor—housing close to the near-future Crenshaw line of the Metro. As an anti-gentrification activist, my hope is that in addition to depicting landmarks that no longer are, I am also depicting future landmarks that won’t ever be.”
– Michael Shaw
michaelshawstudio.com
instagram.com/michaelshawart
On display for one week beginning 6.4.21
Helms Design Center at 8745 Washington Boulevard
All artwork is copyrighted work of the artist. All rights reserved. Images not to be used without permission.
