Shaina McCoy

Painter
Los Angeles, CA

Shaina McCoy

Bio

Shaina McCoy (b. 1993, Minneapolis, MN) lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Working with richly hued oil paints, McCoy creates selectively-colored canvases that depict imagery drawn from photographs of family members and other intimates. Finding a formal balance between artists such as Kara Walker and David Hockney, McCoy builds faceless figures from thick, tactile layers of glossy paint; the resulting images are vivid and vibrant anonymous portraits, loaded with sentiment and mystery. McCoy’s work captures the ambiguous and familiar essence of memory, radiating both history and wonder.

INSPIRATION
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Alice Neel, Egone Schiele, Nikki Giovanni,

HIGHLIGHTS
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McCoy holds an AA in Fine Art from Minneapolis Community and Technical College and also attended the famed Perpich Art Academy in Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Solo Exhibitions

2024 - When There’s Nothing Left, Simchowitz Hill House, Los Angeles, CA
No Tears For The Sun, Stems, Paris, France
2023 - More about Everything, Stems, Brussels, Belgium At Play, Duarte Sequeira, Seoul, South Korea
The Gaze, A Hug from the Art World, New York, NY
2022  - Apples and Oranges, Simchowitz, Los Angeles, CA, Cadillac4, Galeria Duarte Sequeira, Braga, Portugal 
2021 - BABIES HOLDIN’ BABIES, Stems Gallery, Paris, France, B is for, Stems, Brussels, Belgium
2020 - Father, Father, François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, CA
2019 - Bread and Butter, Ever Gold [Projects], San Francisco, CA

ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is composed of paintings that are made mostly after my Pop Pop's (grandpa) photography. I like to think of it as our life-long collaboration. The paintings mimic the composition of photographs cropped to a snapshot in time. Oil paint is applied generously to the canvas as a celebration of family. Nostalgia is the focal point. I linger around the actions of smiling, being held, being loved on, being adored, posing for school photos, and all candid moments. I paint to normalize and celebrate Blackness. I paint to connect with people who may not look like me. I paint to demand the viewers to become mirrors of this outpour of tenderness. I paint to remember what my loved ones' essence was when they are no longer earth-bound. I am in awe and inspired by the many ways love shows up in family and community. THAT is what drives my work.

Studio Beats

I always love listening to Stevie Wonder. As of late, I have been listening to a lot of Janet Jackson. I am saddened to learn of Roy Ayers becoming an ancestor recently, so he has been on repeat, too. When I need energy, I am also a huge Kelela fan! She has a great way of giving me energy when I need it or calming me down.