Michal Shapiro

Luminosa, 2021

Acrylic on canvas
40" x 30"
$3,000

For all sales inquiries, contact Dan Bamba, Arts Services Director: dbamba@flushingtownhall.org

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Artist Statement

"Luminosa" developed out of my affinity with the work of Paul Klee, and my attraction to the color pallet of the contemporary artist Beatrice Mady. The surface of the work is complex, with many textured pentimenti.This is a very balanced and serene, but happy painting.

About The Artist

Michal Shapiro is a visual artist whose work has been used most conspicuously in the TV series “Mad Men.” Her painting “Butternut” was used in Don Draper’s office at Sterling Cooper, and is practically iconic there. Other settings of her work can be seen in movies (“Away We Go,” “Trumbo”), commercials and TV shows.

She attended Queens College to acquire academic skills in Art.  At that time, the faculty of the QC art department was focused on figurative art; however professors Herbert Aach and Gerald Hahn were influential in her transition into abstraction. This solidified in the late 70’s through her exposure to the various painters she met in the then flourishing Soho scene, most prominently, Thornton Willis.

“My work is improvisational, rarely started with a planned image. The hard looking and decision making lead to things that consistently surprise me. I am always learning.” Michal Shapiro is also a musician, a videographer, and world music journalist.

In her own words: “I’ve been painting for most of my life, and for the past twenty years I’ve also been working with cast away items that in some cases do not degrade. Things like discarded CDs, used wrapping paper and supermarket styrofoam trays are all things that I have recycled and incorporated into my work. Green is more than a color to me. Still, conservation aside, I just want to make good art; something that enhances life. My work is abstract, but it is easy to enjoy.”