Jon Shaw’s work documents the slow metamorphosis of cluttered urban spaces. Recreated as illustrative ink and acrylic paintings on wood, they memorialize the ongoing transformation of the familiar locales we tend to overlook in our daily routines. It celebrates crumbly detritus, dumpsters, graffiti and discarded objects.

The work is a combination of detailed ink lines and various transparent acrylic layers applied via brush, droplets and puddles. This layering process establishes a harmonious network of spontaneous mark-making and detailed structure. These techniques are fuelled by the symbiotic narrative between inhabitant and location in the spaces that he references.

Jon was born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario, and received his BFA from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick in 2008. After graduation, Jon moved to Vancouver and spent eight years documenting the ever-evolving alleyways of the Downtown Eastside. A wealth of crumbly urban texture, these environments informed the illustrative urban landscape works of ink and acrylic on wood that became the focus of his artistic output.

In 2018 Jon returned to Niagara where he is producing new work that documents the urban metamorphosis in-and-around Niagara, Hamilton, Toronto and Montreal. Jon has exhibited locally at Niagara Artists Centre in St. Catharines, The Artist Project in Toronto and Kimoto Gallery in Vancouver. His work has received multiple grants from the Ontario Arts Council and is held in various private collections in Canada including CAA, Staedtler North America, AIM Recycling and the City of St. Catharines.