Pauline Shaw

Pauline Shaw’s practice focuses on exploring intersections between personal experience and broader ethnic and spiritual histories. Of Taiwanese and American heritage, Shaw's works reflect her profound appreciation for the diverse range of cultural and historical perspectives she has encountered throughout her life. By infusing weaving, dyeing, and embroidery techniques, into her large-scale tapestries, she has gained recognition for her intricate designs and craftsmanship, which harmoniously balance figuration and abstraction.

Shaw’s textile works interrogate the acquisition and representation of themes such as personal history and cultural knowledge. She examines historical and contemporary depictions of memory, identity, and lineage through the lenses of scientific, spiritual, and cultural belief systems. Braiding together the extensive corpus of ancient Chinese mythology and decorative arts with science and the limitations of the body, she proposes a methodology to fortify the fragility of diasporic narratives and the instabilities of identity.

Shaw's fascination with these symbols and mythologies has its roots in her childhood, where she was exposed to various cultural traditions and historical narratives. Her works reflect a deep appreciation for the diverse range of cultural and historical perspectives she has encountered throughout her life. In doing so, Shaw offers anchor points for her own identity as well as that of her culture, enabling further clarification and definition. 

Pauline Shaw (b. 1988 in Kirkland, US) received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and completed her MFA at Columbia University, New York (2019). Her work has been exhibited across Europe, USA and Asia. Her most recent institutional recognition includes work selected for Tender Loving Care at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2023); work selected for Draw at the Frost Museum, Miami, (2023); and a mural commissioned by the Queens Museum, Queens (2023). Recent exhibitions include Art Brussels, Newchild, Brussels (2024); tenterhooks, Simone Subal, New York (2024); Art Basel Hong Kong (Discoveries), in lieu, Hong Kong (2023, solo); Expo Chicago, Micki Meng, Chicago (2023); Antonia Kuo & Pauline Shaw, Chapter NY, New York (2023); Vaster than Empires, Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco (2022); In Defense of Secrets, Downs & Ross, New York (2022); Signals, Someday Gallery, New York (2022); The Shed, New York (2021); Apostolic Succession, Spurs Gallery, Beijing (2021); ONLINE: Under Glass, Half Gallery, New York (2020); Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (2019); Chorus, Almine Rech, Paris (2019); and Domestic Horror, Gagosian, New York (2019). Shaw has been a resident artist at ISCP, New York in 2020 and followed the France Los Angeles Residency Exchange Program in 2014. The artist lives and works in New York.