b. 1966, United Kingdom
George Shaw is a contemporary British artist known for his realistic depictions of banal spaces in the English suburbs. In the artist’s paintings, the presence of graffiti, litter, and architecture, creates an eerie sense of someone else being there. “For me, it was taking those clichés of epiphany and the sublime and putting them in a place where great thoughts aren’t rumored to happen,” Shaw explained. “It has been said my work is sentimental. I don’t know why sentimentality has to be a negative quality. What I look for in art are the qualities I admire or don’t admire in human beings.” Born in 1966 in the Tile Hill suburb of Coventry, United Kingdom, Shaw received his formal training at Sheffield Polytechnic and London’s Royal College of Art. Notably, the artist was nominated for the Turner prize in 2011. He currently lives and works in Ilfracombe, United Kingdom. Today, Shaw’s works are held in the collections of the Royal College of Art in London, the University of Warwick, and the British Council Collection in London.