Paul Shapiro

Chinese garden

1994

Paul Shapiro was born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 26, 1939. He grew up in the Boston area, eventually pursuing a major in biology at Northeastern University from 1957–58. However, after two years at Northeastern, Shapiro decided to become an artist and leave the university. He enrolled in night classes at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston at the beginning of 1959 in order to study drawing. A year later, Shapiro entered the museum's day school, which he attended until 1962. In 1982, he permanently relocated to Santa Fe because of his involvement with landscape painting.

Shapiro’s body of landscape works were and remain a major influence on the look of landscape paintings in the Southwest. In 1990, he abandoned the landscape focus and returned to a more abstract approach in his work. In 2004, Shapiro's style again evolved, in which he incorporated newly discovered techniques for applying acrylic paint. He named the output of this discovery "The Quantumscape Series." Shapiro defines this body of work as a metaphorical depiction of a pre-matter state with different energy structures at work — a new kind of landscape that is very appropriate for the near future. In 2010, he won the New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. He has had two solo exhibits in Santa Fe.