In the world of contemporary ceramics, Richard Shaw is the master of trompe-l’oeil sculpture. He has developed an astonishing array of techniques, including perfectly cast porcelain objects and overglaze transfer decals. By combining the commonplace with the whimsical, the humorous with the mundane, Shaw captures the poetic and the surreal with the sensibility of a comedian.

Shaw is one of the most respected and collected artists in contemporary ceramics. Coming out of the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s, he has long been affiliated with the Funk movement. However, he has continued to add to his skills and to appropriate from mass culture, developing a vocabulary of found objects that form intimate still life sculpture, complex figures, and personally referential assemblage. He brings life to the detritus of the studio, as a cartoonist animates the page.  Every element of these works including coins and labels are made of ceramic.  There is a signature perfection in the everyday and imperfect objects around him.