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David
Shapiro
Nickel Bags
On view March 13 through April 14, 2003
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 15, 5-7 p.m.
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The museum’s West Gallery
will feature Nickel Bags, an installation by New
York- based artist David Shapiro. Nickel Bags is
an ongoing project centered on a simple action—everyday,
for the last ten years, Shapiro has picked up three things
off the street. Each plucked piece is sealed in a tiny plastic
bag and pinned to the wall forming a grid of thousands of
disjointed scraps. A plastic toy, a lollipop wrapper, a
lipstick smeared cigarette butt, teeth marks on a piece
of gum—Shapiro claims them all. Together they form
a colorful and expansive mosaic of discarded consumption.
Shapiro sees these vestiges of stranger’s lives as
“points of departure for reconstructing narratives
and speculating on motives,” where, like a jigsaw
puzzle in reverse, “the picture is fit to the pieces”.
Shapiro’s recent solo exhibitions include 100,000
Holes in 2002 and Control Freak in 1999, both
at LiebmanMagnan, New York. In addition to numerous group
shows, in 2000 he exhibited Nickel Bags, in a solo
show at Lavanderia Fundacion in Barcelona. A University
at Albany graduate with a B.A. in English, Shapiro is also
the director, writer, and producer of the award-winning
documentary film, Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern
Cannibal Tale.
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