MEET THE ARTIST
Carly Shapiro is a Philadelphia-based abstract artist working across acrylic, collage, mixed media and digital processes. Her practice explores the act of zooming in and out of the world—shifting perspective to examine the interplay of shapes, lines, textures, and recurring patterns found in nature. Through this process, she seeks a sense of organized chaos, trying to find a sense of balance between her inner and outer worlds.
​Like many lifelong artists, her path has unfolded through a balance of curiosity and discipline. Her creative foundation blends self-taught exploration with formal study, including coursework at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Marist College, and a Bachelor of Science in Design and Merchandising and a minor in Art History from Drexel University.
​
After several years working as an in-house graphic designer for two retail startups, she transitioned into freelance design to devote more time and energy to her personal artistic practice. Her work reflects an ongoing debate between structure and fluidity, control and release.​​​​​
She is heavily inspired by the street art and murals that can be found on nearly every block of Philly and how they link the past, the present, and the future. She also pulls on the concept of liminal spaces and how they manifest in both our physical reality and our subconscious. Her work mirrors the in-between: the pull for stability and the desire to burn it all down, fear and hope, isolation and community.
​​
Carly finds that abstract art challenges how she defines and interprets art and seeks to offer that same opportunity to her audience. The intent of these pieces is for everyone to have their own personal interaction with the work. Her goal is to hold space for the feelings that defy neat categories, that exist in our shadow selves, and that reveal, and sometimes revel, in the fractures of a world in flux.
​