My recent body of work is an exploration of a partially imagined pseudo-narrative netherworld haunted by some unidentified collective trauma. A series of lush scenes bathed in personal secrets. The drawings are constructed with a limited, chemical palette and the strange viscosity of oil-wax pastels on paper. Each piece plays out the intention that my viewers become voyeurs of a decorative necropolis where they are simultaneously indulged and denied, invited and disinvited, ignored and addressed. I am interested in identity and self-presentation as they relate to power

Shawn Michael Warren’s work brings attention and awareness to events and individuals (past and present) that have affected and shaped cultures and civilizations throughout the world.

I make paintings that lampoon men as absurd clownlike figures, drawing attention to the personal, political, and social issues facing women in patriarchal societies. My process is to paint on a silkscreen with fabric dye, then transfer the image onto canvas using a squeegee, like a monoprint, relying on chance and imperfections. By portraying the figures with cartoonish whimsy, I try to strip the male oppressors of their power, undermining the culture of machismo that pervades many societies. In demasculinizing them, and through repetition and displacement,

I feed off my heroes and the invention of reality.

I value art that seeks to inspire and provoke. It is with these intentions that I paint, collaborate, and create. The series titled Initiate Your Gaze functions as an installation by mirroring the visual details found in the surrounding exhibition space. Engaging with architectural elements of the room and with art by other artists, the paintings encourage the act of looking.

Much of my creative scholarship is informed by the dual current cultural climates in Chicago and Puerto Rico. The content of my works, whether they are recontextualized existing products or original constructions, reflects a similar duality. Through an aesthetic of minimalism, social practice, vernacular imagery, and consumer goods, I mine the roots of cultural and sociopolitical structures. By focusing on a reduced palette, a single form, a pose, or an object, my formal choices emphasize both overt and clandestine meaning.

At age thirteen, I began to look at things differently. The small town I grew up in was suddenly provincial, the authority figures I had always looked up to were absurd, and God was made up, like Santa Claus. I became angry at the world and acted out by carving obscenities into trees and lighting things on fire. Fortunately, I also developed a sense of humor. This turned out to be a more effective and long-term way of dealing with my anxiety.

These are three paintings from a cycle representing scenes from the life of Felix Antonio Santamaría. Felix is eleven and a half years old and lives with his mother, Leticia, and his grandmother, Lucrecia. His father left his mother for a man when Felix was five. His grandmother is a poet and a zealous Catholic with a small cocaine habit whose mission is the salvation of Felix’s soul, and his mother is a tenured professor in the Gender Studies department of a prestigious university in Chicago.

My paintings focus on sites of consumption and production in the contemporary environment, and explore capitalist consumerism. The subjects I choose are deeply rooted in my experience growing up amidst frenzied transformations in China, with its subsequent unbearable urban density.

My work tackles many themes head-on: hip-hop, art history, popular culture, sexuality, the racial divide, and self are recurring subjects. I take many of my cues from standup comedians, whose routines I listen to while in my studio. Humor and color are two tools that I employ to bring the viewer in for closer examination. My utilization of craft materials offers familiarity, but it also creates the problematic of figuring out how each material should work within each piece. This is important due to my distrust of painting and wanting to problem-solve when I create