TONY SHORE

 

1971 born Baltimore, MD

 

Known for his paintings on black velvet, Tony Shore elevates a medium often written off as kitsch or lowbrow through a mastery of technique and the sincerity with which he approaches his subjects. His paintings of family life, gang violence, and street crime are literally and figuratively dark, the subjects and medium intertwined, each with its own value and history.

 

Tony Shore has been a full-time faculty member at MICA since 2000 and is currently serving as Painting Department Chair. His many awards and honors include being a recent recipient of the Kresge Arts in Baltimore grant and the winner of both the Jane & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize (2007) and the Bethesda Painting Award (2005), as well as a number of Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards. Besides receiving his bachelor of fine arts at MICA, Shore studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received his masters from the Yale University School of Art.