Sharon Shapiro and Jody Fausett

Sharon Shapiro (b. 1968, Bluefield, West Virginia) explores opposing forces in her female-centric, figurative work—balancing the fantastic and the natural, the utopian and the dystopian. Working across diverse media and scales, she considers painting a cunning vessel for tension and insatiable longing simmering just beneath the surface. Recent exhibitions include her solo show No Man’s Land at Quirk Gallery (Richmond, VA) and George Mason University (Manassas, VA); Visionary Picnic at Hilyer Gallery (Washington, DC); and group shows at the McColl Center (Charlotte, NC), Spectrum Fine Art (Seattle, WA), and The Painting Center (New York, NY). A two-time Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship recipient, her work is held in numerous collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) and the Tullman Collection (Chicago, IL). Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, Whitewall, Art Spiel, the Oxford American, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Kolaj Magazine. Shapiro holds an MFA from the Maine College of Art & Design and lives and works in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Jody Fausett (b. 1973, Tate, Georgia) studied photography at the Art Institute of Atlanta before working in fashion and portraiture in New York. He returned to Georgia in 2004 to focus on personal work, which has been featured in exhibitions across the U.S., including MOCA GA’s Movers & Shakers and a solo show at the University of Southern Illinois. His images have appeared on the covers of Art Papers, Contemporary Annual, and the Oxford American, which named him one of the South’s “New Superstars of Art.” Fausett was shortlisted for the Artadia Prize and featured in NoPlaceness: Art in a Post-Urban Landscape. He has contributed to Atlanta’s arts community through his work with Idea Capital Grants. Recent exhibitions include Crush Velvet at the Morean Art Center, and his photograph Wet Driveway was the cover of Oxford American’s summer issue. He is represented by Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta, Georgia.