Auniversal Picture 3 (Scale) | Charcoal on Paper | 80" x 80" | 2012

Auniversal Picture 11 | Charcoal and Pastel on Prepared Linen | 43" x 43" | 2014

Artist Statement: In these large scale drawings, Shelby is formally exploring the visual tensions between representation and abstraction, as his observed subjects (masses of black plastic trash bags, piles of cockroaches, and sculptures of diapers) invoke the sensibility of a Rorschach test for viewers to contemplate. On a conceptual level, these subjects also share connotations of disposability, decay, and most notably repulsion, especially for the artist—as manifestations of personal fears and anxieties. Yet the drawings themselves are rendered to convey the opposite, to be objects that are sumptuous and attractive for the audience. Therefore, the act of detailing these subjects in such scale is a form of individual catharsis. The inherent contrasts between light and dark, representation and abstraction, and attraction and repulsion call into question what we value in art, as well as within a broader cultural context. Shelby’s work fits into an ongoing dialogue that elevates the mundane, the ephemeral, or the vulgar toward a higher status, thereby reflecting areas of society that we often refuse to acknowledge in the mirror of traditional norms.