My work explores a fusion of oppositional polarities, transcendental themes, abstract
symbolism, and humankind’s unique role in the natural world, with a strong emphasis on color harmonies and visual music, with occasional forays into symmetries, tesselations, and representational iconography.
About Shane
Leah Shane Dixon (Shane) is an artist in multiple media, whose diverse body of work explores fusion of oppositional polarities, transcendental themes, abstract symbolism, and humankind’s unique role within the natural world. A graduate of Pratt Institute and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Shane draws from their bi-coastal life experience, informed by the rich tapestry of artistic, historic, cultural, literary, musical and filmic trends of both Los Angeles and New York City. A second generation computer geek, Shane fuses the practices of digital- and video-based art making with the foundation art practices of drawing, painting, installation, and photography. In addition to their active art practice, Shane has curated many group art shows and other curatorial projects in the greater Los Angeles area.
Shane’s art has been seen at the Rubin Museum of Art (NYC), Shoshana Wayne Gallery (Santa Monica), Flower Pepper Gallery (Pasadena, CA), MuzeuMM (LA), OCCCA (Santa Ana, CA), Stone Ridge Center for the Arts (Kingston, NY), the Beacon Arts Building (Inglewood, CA), Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA), Balconi Coffee Company (Santa Monica) and the Hotel Maya (Long Beach, CA). Their curatorial projects have been seen at Coagula Curatorial (LA) and Art Exchange (Long Beach, CA). Shane’s studio is at Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro.
Shane uses the pronouns they/them/theirs or he/him/his.
“My process has a lot of experimentation: I’ll often work on batches of whatever my mode is at a time, and I’ll arrive at the final pieces by months or even years of editing, adding, and modifying. It is not a linear process at all.
I was nearly entirely digital for a solid 18 years (1998-2016) but in the last handful of years I have leaned more into paint, to where I’m doing 90%+ paint now. For the moment I’m employing paint by itself, but I have aspirations to eventually not only take up more digital creation again but to actually fuse the two processes in a single object: so I’ll either start with digital and paint on top of it, or start with paint and then collage digital elements in. Presently I’m still getting a handle on paint; I have begun a small number of paint-on-digital experiments that aren’t yet ready to show but now have a robust series of biomorphic acrylic abstractions that are really starting to deepen. I’m also playing with a process where I will map out a specific kind of tessellated pattern that I project onto a canvas, trace out with a paint pen, and then continue: so even though all the physical work is analog, the pattern originated with a digital assist, but that hasn’t evolved to where I want it yet. I typically have a lot of layering going on, whether it’s paint or digital. Regardless of medium, I want to create objects that can reward sustained attention.
One of the nice things about working analog now, is that I can see more immediately how my works look in relation to each other as a normal part of creating them. I am constantly grouping my art side by side and in close groupings to see how they work and play together. But also, I’m coming to understand the therapeutic value of just pushing a little blob of goo around on a surface.”
– Leah Shane Dixon
leahshanedixon.com
instagram.com/leahshanedixon
On display for one week beginning 12.18.20
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.
