Michael Shaw Leicestershire, United Kingdom

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I am a site-responsive artist interested in responding to buildings of architectural note and museum collections.

I am a sculptor who makes responses to artefacts from museum collections using laser cut materials, casting, 3D printing, ceramic processes and fabrication. I also create site-specific inflatables that seek to synthesise sculpture and architecture through direct physical interactions and by considering the building a mould that forms and informs the sculptures’ geometry. This has included collaborating with multiple UK museums, galleries and buildings of architectural note including the V&A; RAMM, Exeter; RAGM, Rugby; Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery; Left Bank Leeds; the Hub Sleaford and the 20-21 Visual Arts Centre Scunthorpe. Since 2023 my practice has spread internationally with the sculpture Lava Lamp being commissioned by the Balloon Museum for a tour of 9 major cities in the Americas, including New York, Atlanta and Miami to date. Alongside inflatables shown recently in Naples and CICA, Gimpo, Korea. Of greatest significance has been the 2024 Sydney Festival commissioning me to respond to the Pier 2 building in Walsh Bay Wharf, just under the Sydney harbour bridge. The resulting sculpture Hi-Viz measured 46 x 20 x 5.6m and at 200m long is my largest work to date.