Stuart Shils uses a variety of media to explore an evolving fascination with the perceptual process.  Known for many years as a painter of landscapes working from direct observation in Ireland, Italy, and Philadelphia, Shils now explores the intimacy of place within the world ‘out there’ by way of improvisational urban street photography, paper collage, painted photographs and monotype. While the urban photographs are direct examinations of the specific qualities of material presence and ‘place’, the monotypes, collages and photo collages are more evocations of memory and feeling.David Cohen says, “the palimpsest of screens and frames that characterize his photographic motifs are equivalents of a painting process that is somehow at once alla prima and layered, marked equally by impressionistic responses and minutely deliberative editing, a kind of temporal push-pull that exploits dichotomies of composure and snap.”

Shils is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and an Academy Award  from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Education

1977–1982      The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA,
Recipient of   Cresson European Traveling Scholarship

Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
1972 – 1974     Drew University, Madison, NJ

Solo Exhibitions

2014  steven harvey fine art projects, New York, NY
2014  Davis and Langdale, New York, NY
2013  Rothschild Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2013  steven harvey fine art projects, New York, NY
2011  Davis and Langdale, New York
2010  Rothschild Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects at Coleman Bancroft, New York, NY
2009  Davis and Langdale Company, New York
2008  Tibor De Nagy Gallery, New York
Davis and Langdale Company, New York
2006 Davis and Langdale Company, New York
2005  Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY
2005  Gallery 33, Tel Aviv, Israel
2004  Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY
2003  Davis and Langdale Company, New York, NY
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
Hackett – Freedman, San Francisco, CA
2002  Fenton Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2001  Davis and Langdale Company, New York, NY
Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Hackett – Freedman, San Francisco, CA
2000 Tibor de Nagy, New York, NY
1999  Barton/Ryan Gallery, Boston, MA
Mangel Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY
1998  Sydne Bernard, Los Angeles, CA
1997  Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York., NY (December, 1997)
Mangel Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA
Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY (January, 1997)
1995  Horwitch Newman, Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Mangel Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA
1994  Mangel Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Mangel Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
F.A.N. Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1991   Challenge Exhibition, Samuel S. Fleisher Memorial, Administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

Select Group Exhibitions

2014  Paper Works, Gross McCleaf, Philadelphia, PA

2013  Come Like Shadows, curated by David Cohen, Lurcher Gallery, New York, NY

2012  A Drawing Show of Artists, curated by Bill Scott and Alex Kanevsky, The Philadelphia, PA

5 Artists on Paper, Davis and Langdale, New York, NY

Doris Staffel, Painter, Teacher, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Haunting Narratives: Detours from Philadelphia Realism, 1935 to the present, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

2011  Response, Remembrance and Reflection, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

the gap: kurt knobelsdorf, sangram majumdar, stuart shills, steven harvey fine art projects, New York, NY

Flirting with Abstraction: Modern and Contemporary Art of Philadelphia in the Promised Gift of Karen Segal and
Woodmere’s Collection, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Pennsylvania Landscape, Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, PA

Pink Moon, steven harvey fine art projects, new york, ny

2010  In the Light of Corot, shfap, New York, NY

2010  Oil & Water, shfap, New York, NY

2010  Viewpoint, Reymolds Gallery, Richmond, VA

2009  PAIRINGS: Seymour Remenick and Stuart Shils, steven harvey fine art projects

@Gallery Schelssinger, New York, NY

2007  Alumni Invitational Exhibition, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2006  American Artist in Rural Ireland, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA

2005  Emptiness, Gallery 33, Tel Aviv, Israel Between Perception and invention: three Generations of Figurative Artists, Sharon Arts Center, Peterborough, NH Pat de Groot and Stuart Shils: Coast to Coast, Brick Walk Bookshop and Fine Art, West Hartford, CT Works on Paper, Davis and Langdale Company, New York, NY

2004 American Identities, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

Art in Embassies Program, American Embassy in Dublin, Ireland

2003 EIRE/LAND, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA

2002 Imaginative Affinities: Echoes of Dickinson in Contemporary American Art, Pennsylvania

Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Works on Paper, Davis and Langdale Company, New York, NY

Stuart Shils and Nem Hackett, Etherington Fine Arts, Chillmark, MA

Kindred Spirits: The Landscapes of Eric Aho, Wolf Kahn and Stuart Shils, Paesaggio Gallery West Hartford, CT

2001  Passages from Ballinglen, List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA

Works on Paper: Carol Anthony, Wolf Kahn and Stuart Shils, Paesaggio Gallery, West Hartford, CT

1999  Changing Nature: New Visions and Imagined Lands, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg,

Beyond the Millennium: Artists Choose Artists, Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT

Intimate Visions, List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA

Through the Heart of the City, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA

1997  An Extended View: Landscapes by Philadelphia Artists, Levy Gallery at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA

Current Perspectives on the Urban and Industrial Landscape, The New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ

Landscape as Abstraction, James Graham and Sons, New York, NY

1996  Small-Scale Landscapes, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA

National Academy of Design 171st Annual Exhibition, New York, NY

Twenty Years in Boston 1976-1996, Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, MA

1995  Emerging Artists Invitational, The Painting Center, New York, NY

Miniature Landscapes, Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, MA

Exhibition of Work by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY

American Academy Invitational Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY

West Art and the Law, West Publishing, Traveling 1995-1996

The Butler Institute of American Art 59th National Midyear Annual, Youngstown, OH

Colors, Walker-Kornbluth Gallery, Fair Lawn, NJ (with Bill Scott and Rose Naftulin)

Still Life Invitational, Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY

The Artist in Rural Ireland: Images of North Mayo, The Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
The City Observed, Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA (Three person show)

The Butler Institute of American Art 58th National Midyear Annual, Youngstown, OH

Summer Group Show, Tatistcheff and Company, New York, NY
The Butler Institute of American Art 57th Midyear Annual, Youngstown, OH

National Academy of Design 169th Annual Exhibition, New York, NY

Painting selected by the state Department for the Art in Embassies Program, Washington, DC

Two American Landscape Painters, Kunsthaus Buhler, Stuttgart, Germany (with Paul Flexner)
National Juried Competition, The Bowery Gallery, New York, NY

National Academy of Design 167th Annual Exhibition, New York, NY

Grumbacher Art Award and Gold Medal
The Urban Scene, Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, Philadelphia, PA

Allentown Art Museum 23rd Annual Juried Show, Allentown, PA

Delaware Museum of Art Biennial 1991, Wilmington, DE
The Butler Institute of American Art 55th National Midyear Annual, Youngstown, OH

Fellowships, Grants, Awards

2009  Peter S. Reed Foundation

2005  Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts

1996  NEA/Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Visual arts Fellowship

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Visual Arts State Fellowship

1995  American Academy of Arts and Letters, Academy Award in Art

Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant

E.D. Foundation Grant

Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship (and 1999, 2004)

1993  E.D. Foundation Grant

Visiting Artist, Residencies, Teaching, Collaborations

2014  Teaching at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine

Visiting Artist, Hamline University, St Paul, Minnesota

Visiting Artist, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Visiting Artist, Lyme Academy College of Art, Lyme, CT

2013  Master Class With Ken Kewley at PAFA and lecture, The Abstraction of Nature and the Nature of Abstraction, Philadelphia, PA

Master Class, PAFA, The Structure of the Visual Moment, Philadelphia, PA

The Perception of Nature and the Nature of Perception, Sedona, AZ (2010-2014)

2012  Visiting Artist/Lecture, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

The Habit of Looking and the Visual Kiss, public lecture, Jerusalem Studio School

2010  Teaching and lecturer at the Jerusalem Studio School, Jerusalem, Israel

2008 -10  Weekly Critic at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Teaching for the Jerusalem Studio School Summer Program in Umbria, Italy

2009  Visiting Artist and Lecture, Johns Hopkins University

2008  Master Class at The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA

2007 – 10  Master Class at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2007  Teaching, International School of Painting and Drawing, Montecastello, Italy

Visiting Artist, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT – Monotype/Landscape Workshop

2004-05  Jerusalem Studio School Landscape Marathon, Jerusalem, Israel – Visiting Artist, public lecture

Washington Studio School, Bethesda, MD – visiting critic/lecturer, and landscape workshop

2004  Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD – Senior Thesis Advisor

Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Landscape Workshop

Figurative and Landscape Workshops, Main Line Center for the Arts, Haverford, PA

1999– 08  Vermont Studio Center, Visiting Critic, Johnson, VT

1999–03   Vermont Studio Center Press, Monotype Collaboration with Sarah Amos, Master Printer

2005-06  Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida, Landscape Workshop

2003,04,05  Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA – Outdoor Landscape Workshop

2004,05  Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA – Figure painting class

2002  Crawford Art College, Cork Ireland, Visiting Critic and Lecturer

2002  New York Studio School Evening Lecture Series, New York

2002  George Washington University, Washington, DC – Visiting Artist

2002  Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA – Visiting Artist

2002  PAFA, lecture in collaboration with Edwin Dickinson show, Philadelphia, PA

2002  Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, visiting critic

1999  Arobora Press, San Francisco, Invitational Monotype Collaboration

1999–2002  Woodmere Art Museum Lecture Series, Philadelphia, PA

“Tonality, Color and Abstraction in American Art”

“East/West: Guston, Rothko, Deibenkorn, Bischoff, Post War Figuration and Abstraction”

“The Art of J.M.W. Turner: Heaven and Earth”

“The Loaded Brush: The Legacy of Eakins”

“Pennsylvania Impressionism in Context”

“Giorgio Morandi”

“Land, Sea, and Sky”

1998-99  Participated in Ireland with Frances McElroy on filming of documentary Ballycastle, a work in progress – Ballycastle, Co Mayo, Ireland

2001,03-05  GRAI Landscape Painting Workshop, Walpole, New Hampshire

1994–06  Summers painting on the northwest coast of Co. Mayo, Ireland

2007-08   Summer painting in Umbria, Italy

Bibliography

The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 10, 2009, “Pairings: Seymour Remenick, Stuart Shils”, Lance Esplund

ArtCritical.Com, February 2009, “Stuart Shils and John Dubrow”, John Goodrich.

The New Republic, Decmeber 24, 2008, “Private Lives”, Jed Perl.

Representing Art in Ireland, Sarah Finlay, p. 178, Fenton Gallery/Nicholson and Bass, 2008.

The New York Sun, October 26, 2006, “Arts and Letters: Gallery Going”, John Goodrich, p.15

The Bridgestone 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland 2006, p.98, John and Sally McKenna, Estragon Press, Cork, Ireland, 2005

Exhibition Catalog, “Between Earth and Sky”, essay: Stuart Shils, Tibor De Nagy, New York, November 2005, Green Shade Press

The Jerusalem Post, “Plein Air Delights” Gil Goldfine, April 29, 2005

Ha’aretz, “Stuart Shils, Gallery 33”, Smadar Shefi, April 13, 2005

Studio, an Israeli Art Magazine, “Stuart Shils, Gallery 33”, March/April 2005. p. 10

Ha’aretz, “Weekend Recommendations”, Smadar Shefi, May 5, 2005

Maureen Mullarkey, website text in Studio Matters and Commentary, “A Treasure Hunt: a brief homily by Israel Hershberg”, 2005

Achbar Hair, “Without Words”, Neta Dror, March 17, 2005

Exhibition Catalog, essay Israel Hershberg, Gallery 33, Tel Aviv, Israel, March 2005

The New Yorker, January 3, 2005, p.14, Goings on About Town – Galleries

The New York Sun, December 9, 2004 “Arts and Letters: Gallery Going”, Maureen Mullarkey, p.20

Exhibition Catalog, Dec. 2005, “Chasing the Sky”, Tibor de Nagy, New York, essay: Bill Corbett

The Irish Times, August 25, 2004,” Retreating To the Edge of the World”, Aidan Dunne, p.11

“Ballycastle”, a television documentary, produced and directed by Fran McElroy, Shirley Road

Productions, Phioladelphia, 2004. Aired on PBS, Philadelphia and nationally.

Exhibition Catalog, “American Identities, 20th Century Prints from the Nancy Gray Sherrill Class of 1954 Collection”, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, pp. 164, 165

Exhibition Catalog, “EIRE/Ireland”, edited by Vera Kreilkamp, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, pp. 109, 110, 217, 218

Montgomery County Town and Country Living, “Stuart Shils”, Jane Biberman.

The Irish Times, November 30, 2002, “The Rain Chaser”, Aidan Dunne, p. 55                                                                 The Sunday Tribune, December 1, 2002, “Visual Art”, Marianne Hartigan, p. 4

The Irish Examiner, November 22, 2002, “The Weatherman”, Alannah Hopkin

Exhibition Catalog, November 2002, Vera Ryan, “The Mayo Paintings”, Fenton Gallery, Cork, Ireland

The Irish Times, August 31, 2002, Michael Vinney, “Artist Confrontations at the Rim of the World”, Another Life, p. 7

Exhibition Catalog, October 2001, “Recent Paintings and Works on Paper”, Davis and Langdale Company, New York, NY

Philadelphia City Paper, June 7 – 14 2001, “Monoprints (x3)”, Susan Hagen

Exhibition Catalog, May 2001, “Lightscapes: Monotypes and Oil Pastels from Ireland, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Art and Antiques May 2001 “Emerging Artist”, Ken Shulman, p. 58

The New Citerion, June 2000, “Recognizing the Real Thing”, Merlin James.

“Eyewitness”, Jed Perl, 2000, published by Basic Books, pp 169 – 176.

Art New England, December 1999/January 2000, “Barton/Ryan Gallery, Boston: Stuart Shils: Dreams of Sun and Rain, Paintings from Ireland and Philadelphia”, Joshua Meyer

The Crest, a publication of Woodmere Art Museum: Winter 1999, “An Interview with Painter Stuart Shils”, Meri Adelman

Inside Magazine, Winter 1999, p. 87, “A Man For All Seasons”, Jane Biberman

The Boston Globe, November 4, 1999, “Illumining Two Visions of Irish Landscape”, Cate McQuaid

The Boston Phoenix, October 29, 1999, “Irish Eyes: Peter Brooke and Stuart Shils,” Christopher Millis

The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 13, 1998, p. MD3, “Swarthmore College,” Victoria Donohoe

Exhibition Catalogue, March 1999, Peter Cameron, “Stuart Shils: Recent Paintings”, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

The New Criterion, February, 1998, p. 48, “Exhibition Notes,” David Cohen

Philadelphia Weekly, November 12, 1997, “Precisely Beautiful”, Gerard Brown

The Hudson Review, Volume L, Number 2, p. 297, Summer, 1997, “Approaches to the Sacred,” John Loughery

Art New England, August/September, 1997, “Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston: Wolf Kahn and Stuart Shils,” Miles Unger

The New Republic, July 14, 21, 1997, p. 30, “Earth,” Jed Perl

Philadelphia Weekly, June 4, 1997, p. 30, “Room For a View,” Jeanne Nugent

The New York Times, March 30, 1997, New Jersey Section, The Towns, P. 9, “Not Your Average Bucolic Landscape,” William Zimmer

Humanities, March/April, 1997, p. 24, “The Sacred and the Urbane”

The New Yorker, February 3, 1997, p. 20, “Goings on About Town – Galleries”

The Boston Globe, June 6, 1996, p. 35, “1976-1996: Twenty Tears in Boston,” Cate McQuaid

The New York Times, January 31, 1997, C28, “Stuart Shils,” Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Michael Kimmelman

Exhibition Catalogue, Justin Spring, “Stuart Shils: Recent Paintings”, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

New Art Examiner, January, 1996, p. 43, “Stuart Shils at Mangel Gallery,” Tom Csaszar

The Boston Globe, December 14, 1995, p. 77, “Landscapes That Prove Small is Beautiful,” Nancy Stapen

Style Weekly, June 6, 1995, Arts & Leisure, “Richly Rendered,” Paulette Roberts-Pullen

Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 25, 1995, D28, “Shils, Carbo featured in gallery show,” CeCe Bullard

Philadelphia Inquirer, April 16, 1995, B2, “The Scene,” Richard Jones

Seven Arts, November, 1995, “Portfolio: Stuart Shils,” Bill Scott

American Artist, January, 1995, p. 57, “Stuart Shils’s Passionate Journey,” Bill Scott

Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1995, “Metropolis, City Sites”, Debra Nussbaum

Seven Arts, March, 1995, vol.3, no.3, p.5, “Shopping, Made in Philadelphia”, Judith West

Philadelphia Inquirer, May 2, 1994, B1, “Amid Urban Blight, Urban Beauty,” Denise-Marie Santiago

Exhibition Catalogue, Stanley Grand, “The City Observed”, Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Art in America, September, 1993, p. 118, “Philadelphia: Stuart Shils at Mangel,” Miriam Seidel

Philadelphia Inquirer, February 19, 1993, “On Galleries,” Edward Sozanski

New Art Examiner, February, March, 1992, “Challenge I,” Edward Sozanski

Philadelphia Inquirer, January 30, 1992, C3, “On Galleries,” Edward Sozanski

Philadelphia Inquirer, September 19, 1991, D3, “On Galleries,” Edward Sozanski

The Philadelphia Daily News, September 10, 1991, Arts, “Challenging Art,” Kitty Caparella