Mindy Shapero creates lively, meticulous sculptural and canvas works comprised of materials as various as studio scraps, spray paint, gold, copper, and silver leaf. Her works on canvas are formed by stencils sourced from discarded sculptural bits, and portions of those stencils eventually find their way back into the artist‘s sculptural work. In this process, Shapero transmutes negatives from past sculptural pieces into positive shapes that form the bedrock of her cosmic abstractions. Shapero’s repeating motifs—irregular rectangles and ovals that resemble “scars” or ruptures in the surface— are highlighted through the artist’s application of delicate gold leaf, an adornment dating back more than 8,000 years in the canon of art history. She is interested in the combination of old and new techniques. Shapero’s techniques harken back to the artist’s personal history rooted in the DIY aesthetics of punk counterculture.
She and Zuckerman discuss her approach to narrative, spirituality, alchemy and transformation, surprising herself, the responsibility of being climate aware, repurposing, being a hoarder, titling as poetry, duality, color as everything, how hard it is to talk about art, the process of making, rules, and making what you want to see!