Judith Shaw is a St. Louis-based sculptor who makes abstract, assemblage-style forms from found and everyday materials such as roadside tire debris, spent bicycle inner tubes, chain-link fence, tar paper and discarded mural paint. She works intuitively, often with repeated elemental shapes and simple fabrication methods, and draws on emotion and personal narrative to address turbulence, identity and human connection. Born in New York City, she has lived in St. Louis since the mid-2000s.
Several series start from materials found around St. Louis. For Fault Lines, shown at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild in 2020, she laid tar paper in the path of construction vehicles in Clayton and recorded their tire tracks. Lifelines (2024) threads crimped bicycle inner tubes onto wire in a frieze of black, pleated clusters, and Upended (2025) presents roadside tire debris as forms about disintegration and integration. Off the Wall (2026) reshapes paint fragments gathered beside the downtown flood wall during Paint Louis, the city’s annual graffiti mural event, into works between sculpture and painting.
Without formal art training, Shaw began making sculpture in midlife, largely from cardboard boxes. That early work, shown as Body of Work, was exhibited from 2009 to 2016 at venues including Washington University School of Medicine, Harvard University and Rhode Island School of Design, where she also lectured. She directs the Art Collaborative, a St. Louis forum that arranges quarterly behind-the-scenes visits with artists and cultural organizations.
She has shown in the 28th and 29th Cedarhurst Biennials (2019, 2021) at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, and received an Honorable Mention in Constructed Visions V (2024) at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Other awards include the Mary Davis Award from the Meramec Contemporary Art Gallery (2020) and an Artistic Achievement – Fine Art Award from St. Louis Community College–Meramec (2026). With Bruno David Gallery, Shaw presented Lifelines (2024) and Upended (2025) in the Window on Forsyth vitrine before her first solo exhibition in the main gallery, Off the Wall (6 March – 11 April 2026), documented in a Bruno David Publications catalogue.
SELECTED WORKS
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (1), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 30 x 20 in. (76.2 x 50.8 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (2), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 30 x 16 in. (76.2 x 40.6 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (3), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (4), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (5), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (6), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (7), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (8), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (9), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (10), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (11), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (12), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm)
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (13), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (14), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (15), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (16), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (18), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm)
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (19), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (20), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Off the Wall (21), 2025 Found paint fragment on tar paper 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm), framed
Judith Shaw Treadbure, 2017 Found tire, mixed media 27 x 38 x 15 in. (68.6 x 96.5 x 38.1 cm)
Judith Shaw Blurred, 2017 Mixed media, wood 39 x 12 x 18 in. (99.1 x 30.5 x 45.7 cm)
Judith Shaw Flux, 2017 Mixed media, wood 23 x 12 x 13 in. (58.4 x 30.5 x 33 cm)
Judith Shaw Left by the Side of the Road, 2017 Mixed media, wood 43 x 19 x 17 in. (109.2 x 48.3 x 43.2 cm)
Judith Shaw Untitled (Fault Lines Series), 2018 Watercolor, ink and collage on paper 30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm)
Judith Shaw Untitled, 2018 Mixed media 33 x 14 x 8 in. (83.8 x 35.6 x 20.3 cm)
Judith Shaw Rupture, 2018 Found tire 80 x 14 x 15 in. (203.2 x 35.6 x 38.1 cm)
Judith Shaw Roots, 2018 Found tire 90 x 9 x 9 in. (228.6 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm)
Judith Shaw Upended, 2021 Found tire 60 x 44 x 5 in. (152.4 x 111.8 x 12.7 cm)
Judith Shaw Ambivalence, 2022 Rubber tires, rebar 48 x 10 x 13 in. (121.9 x 25.4 x 33 cm)
EXHIBITIONS
BRUNO DAVID GALLERY, ST. LOUIS
Upended
Solo exhibition, Window on Forsyth
4 April – 21 June 2025
NEWS
GROUP EXHIBITION
Art + Design Exhibition
St. Louis Community College–Meramec, St. Louis, May 2026
TALK
Artist talk with Jill Downen and William Morris
Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, March 2026
PUBLICATIONS
SELECTED PRESS
FEATURE
Pulling back the curtain: Going behind the scenes at the Muny
St. Louis Public Radio, Olivia Mizelle, July 2025
INTERVIEW
How Judith Shaw Turned Construction Zone Angst Into Art
St. Louis Public Radio, Sarah Fenske, August 2020