Hometown Hall

Contemporary artist Shapiro will visit Brenau University Thursday, Sept. 6, at 6:30 p.m., for a lecture about her paintings that are on exhibit through Oct. 7 at the university´s John S. Burd Center for the Performing Arts, 429 Academy St., Gainesville, Ga.

There is no admission charge for either the exhibit or the lecture, both of which are open to the public. Her paintings are on display now at the Leo Castelli Art Gallery, which reopens after the Labor Day weekend on Tuesday, Sept. 4. Normal gallery hours are Tuesdays - Fridays, 12-4 p.m. and Sundays from 2-5 p.m.

Shapiro, from Charlottesville, Va., has been praised by critics for having both original style and technical wallop. The solo show at Brenau, entitled "Half of What You See," features different acrylic paintings and graphite drawings. She displays many portrait-type paintings with very simple but vibrant backgrounds, mainly depicting children and younger women.

Shapiro uses different colors to make particular things pop off the canvas. Many of the faces used in her paintings look as though they could be in the same family, which indeed they may be. Shapiro says she works from old photos she comes across, ads from the 1950s and 1960s, and "images of my daughter and me."

"I paint mostly girls and women in attempt to decode femininity, desire and the push-pull between control and compliance felt as a female," she says. I try to draw upon both my internal world of desires as well as society´s ambivalent depictions of women to transform the generic figures into images of individuality."

One painting, "When I See You," features two younger teenage girls looking into what appears to be a funhouse mirror; as if these girls reflect a looking-glass self-image of the world.

For more information, contact the Brenau galleries at 770-534-6263 or gallery@brenau.edu. Some of Shapiro´s work may be seen http://www.sharonshapiro.com/.