David Shapiro: Mantras

Mantras have often been described as meaningful linguistic instruments of the mind. For over forty years, David Shapiro crafted meaningful linguistic instruments for the eye on canvas and paper that were visually melodic with an almost mathematically precise balance in their construction. The influence his prints and paintings have on the viewer is calming, mesmerizing, and Zen-like in nature.

Shapiro’s work has been consistent throughout his career: spare, stacked compositions that explore emptiness, surface, and endless varieties of the color gray. On the whole, Shapiro’s works are both elegant and severe; contrasting minimalist arrangements and color with richly imbued, and even decorative, surfaces.  They hum with a calm presence that is palpable, monolithic, and oblique.

Respectful of humanity and nature, Shapiro’s abstraction was grounded in a spiritual connection that was both profoundly complex and approachable.