Born in New York City in 1941, Joel Shapiro became a well-known modernist sculptor of blocky, geometric designs that often resemble human figures.

Biography Joel Shapiro (1941 - ) Joel Shapiro received a B.A. and M.A. from New York University (1964, 1969). Since his first solo exhibition in 1970, Shapiro’s work has been the subject of over 100 one-person shows and retrospectives including: Joel Shapiro: Sculpture and Drawing at The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London that later traveled to the Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1980); Joel Shapiro organized by The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York with subsequent venues at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art (1982-84); Joel Shapiro at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and later exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf and the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany (1985-86); Joel Shapiro organized by IVAM Centro Julio Gonzalez, Valencia, that later traveled to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, the Kunsthalle Zurich and the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Calais, France (1990-91). The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City co-organized and exhibited Joel Shapiro: Outdoors, the first major outdoor exhibition of the artist’s bronzes (1995-96), and in 1999 the American Academy in Rome mounted Joel Shapiro: Roma, an installation of Shapiro’s sculpture at the Academy and around the city. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England exhibited Joel Shapiro: Sculptures 1974-1999 shortly thereafter (1999-2000). Most recently, Shapiro’s sculpture was on view at the Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston which then traveled to the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio and the Denver Art Museum (2000-01). In the summer and autumn of 2001, Shapiro’s work was on view at The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Shapiro has been honored with numerous awards including: a Visual Art Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1975); the Brandeis University Creative Arts Award (1984); the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture (1986); the Award of Merit Medal for Sculpture given by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, NY; and, election to the Swedish Royal Academy of Art. In 1998 Shapiro became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY. In addition, Shapiro’s work has regularly been exhibited in prestigious group exhibitions such as the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY (1977, 1979, 1981, 1989), Documenta in Kassel, Germany (1977, 1982), and the Venice Biennale (1980). More than 20 commissions and publicly sited sculptures by Shapiro are located in major Asian, European and North American cities including works for the Cigna Corporation, Philadelphia (1983-84); Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles (1988-89); the Government Service Administration, Los Angeles (1988-90); the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC (1993); Sony Plaza, New York (1994-95); Friedrichstadt Passagen, Berlin (1994-95); the Kansas City International Airport, MO (1994-96); the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1996); Kanton of Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland (1997); the Embassy of the United States of America, Ottawa, Canada (1999); Köln Skulpture Park, Cologne (1999); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1999); the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (1999); the University of Cincinnati (1999); Rockefeller University, New York (2000); the International Sculpture Collection, Rotterdam (2000); the Communaute de Communes de L’Agglomeration Orleanaise, Orléans (2001); the Embassy of the United States of America, Vienna, Austria (2001); and The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago (2002). Joel Shapiro’s work can be found in over eighty public collections in the United States and abroad, including: the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Cleveland Museum of Art; the Des Moines Art Center; Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone-machi, Japan; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Saint Louis Art Museum; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Tate Gallery, London; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. Joel Shapiro lives and works in New York City. Curriculum Vitae Joel Shapiro 1941 Born in New York 1964 B.A., New York University 1969 M.A., New York University Selected Exhibitions 2003 Joel Shapiro, PaceWildenstein, New York, NY 2003 Joel Shapiro, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL 2001 Joel Shapiro: Sculpture, Middleton Place, Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC 2001 Joel Shapiro: Sculpture, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX 2001 Joel Shapiro: Sculpture, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO 2001 Joel Shapiro, Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France 2001 Joel Shapiro: Recent Sculpture and Drawings, PaceWildenstein, New York, NY 2001 Joel Shapiro on the Roof, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 2000 Joel Shapiro, National Gallery of Canada, OttawaCanada 2000 Joel Shapiro: Sculpture and Works on Paper, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2000 Painted Wood, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London 1999 Joel Shapiro: Recent Sculpture, PaceWildenstein, Los Angeles, USA 1999 Joel Shapiro, Roma, American Academy in Rome, Italy 1999 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA 1999 Joel Shapiro Sculpture, New Art Centre Sculpture Park & Gallery, Roche Court, East Winterslow, Salisbury, Wiltshire 1999 Joel Shapiro Sculptures 1974-1999, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, Yorkshire 1998 Joel Shapiro: Sculpture in Clay, Plaster, Wood, Iron and Bronze, 1971- 1997, Addison Gallery, Andover, MA 1998 Joel Shapiro: Skulpturen 1993-1997, Haus der Kunst, Munich