BFA, Painting

Class of 1993

General fine arts faculty member Tony Shore '93 (painting) has created a wide range of paintings over his lifetime, but one subject has continually reappeared in his work: his father. In this exhibition, Shore will showcase paintings of his father created over a 25-year period, chronicling his growth as an artist while documenting the aging process. Intimate and unabashed, the paintings reveal an inside glimpse of his father's dignity, humor, and humanity. This will be Shore's first solo exhibition since his father's death in 2010. Known for his paintings on black velvet, Shore elevates a medium often written off as kitsch or lowbrow through a mastery of technique and the sincerity with which he approaches his subjects. His paintings of family life, gang violence, and street crime are literally and figuratively dark, the subjects and medium intertwined, each with its own value and history.

Shore has been a full-time faculty member at MICA since 2000. His many awards and honors include being a recent recipient of the Kresge Arts in Baltimore grant and the winner of both the Jane & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize (2007) and the Bethesda Painting Award (2005), as well as a number of Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards. Besides receiving his bachelor of fine arts at MICA, Shore studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (see page 19 for more information) and received his masters from the Yale University School of Art. The exhibition will run in the Bunting Center's Pinkard Gallery until Sunday, March 17.