Shawn Saumell

: Photographer, Painter, Video, Sculpture, Books, Installation

Artist Overview

Shawn Saumell was born in New York and currently lives and works in Dallas. He received an MFA from Lesley University College of Arts and Design fka The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, BFA from Texas Woman’s University, magna cum laude, and an AA from Collin College, cum laude.

Saumell's work has been featured in over 200 exhibitions worldwide and has won many international awards including, but not limited to: "First Place," "Director's Choice," "Photographer of the Year," "Best of Biennial," "100 Best International," "Top 50 MFA Painters in America," "Top 25 International Fine Artists," and "Best of Show."

Through my art, I explore the physical versus mental. Objects versus ideas. Ideas through objects. The object of ideas. Objects as conduits for ideas or image/object as a means of understanding something beyond the familiar, from the familiar. It isn’t what it is and is what it isn’t.

In my work, I primarily repurpose found objects from nature and human-made. These mundane materials are usually banal, overlooked, and of no monetary value. The objects are removed from their original context and assembled and sculpted in constructed environments. Photography is used in a nontraditional manner, as to not point and record physical reality but rather to use the medium as a tool of creativity to produce unique imagery of the mind, thoughts, ideas, dreams, and concepts.