SHANE PENNINGTON

ARTIST BIO & ARTIST STATEMENT

Shane Pennington is a Dallas-based artist and a founder of AURORA, the largest outdoor new media arts festival in the United States of America. AURORA debuted in the Dallas Arts District in October 2011 and had the largest attendance to date in 2015.

Pennington’s works engage the balance and fragility of essential dichotomies. Between the ephemeral and the enduring, nature and the human construct, Pennington’s subjects are often skewed both metaphorically and physically, prompting their viewers to contemplate life and its meaning from an alternative perspective. His use of many media and textures, especially copper wire, allows for a diverse artistic language. The resultant works conjure an energy that reflects upon life, death, and universal consciousness.

Pennington is a recipient of the “New Dallas Nine” award from D Magazine and has exhibited internationally at the Paddington Contemporary Gallery in Sydney, Australia, and at Sur la Montagne, Berlin. He also counts many world-recognized institutions and corporations among his collectors, including Alana in Sydney, The Gaedeke Group, Caldwell Cassady & Curry, Autonomy, The Regis Corporation, Dallas City Hall, The Dallas City Performance Hall, TEDxSMU, and JP Morgan Chase, by whom he was commissioned to install his work in the lobby of their flagship tower in Dallas.

“Much of the subject matter in my work is influenced by nature and spirituality as I view them interrelated. I frequently pull inspiration from the hill country where the landscape is unforgiving at times and arid. In contrast, within this struggle for resources, you also will see large healthy old oak trees. The current landscape provides a base within my work which mirrors my thoughts on the struggles of life and our purpose in life. I often reference a point of time in the future with the possibility that there is nothing left and work backward towards documenting what is in front of us.”
- Shane Pennington