Alan Shields

NEW YORK—Multi-dimensional, colored paper constructions by Alan Shields will be exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery, 521 West 21st Street and Nicholas Davies Gallery, 23 Commerce Street, New York. The Paula Cooper exhibition will be on view from 7 September - 7 October 2000.

Since the early 1970s, Alan Shields has challenged and expanded conventional notions of print and papermaking. Foremost among his innovative practices was the making his own paper, which he used to create in unusual, double-sided, multi-layered prints. Vibrant hues, imaginative shapes and distinctive combinations of media — often including sewn materials and beads — characterize the range of objects created.

Shields’ recent work includes wall-mounted, multi-layered reliefs, freestanding objects, and hanging forms such as cubes and small spirals featuring geometric patterns and whimsical colors. These pieces are the result of a delicate, time-consuming process of dipping wire into paper pulp, which is then hand-painted.

Shields’ first one-person exhibition was held at Paula Cooper Gallery in 1969. His work has been exhibited widely nationally and internationally and is included in, among others, the collections of the Whitney Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Most recently, his work was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas in 1999.

Other new pieces will also be exhibited at the Dieu Donné Papermill, 433 Broome Street, where Shields produced this body of work, from 20 September — 14 October. The Nicholas Davies Gallery is located at 23 Commerce Street between 7th Avenue South and Bedford Street, where Shields’ work will be on view from 6 September — 14 October.

For more information, please contact the gallery: (212) 255-1105 or
info@paulacoopergallery.com