Darwent’s interests lie somewhere in between the city and the suburbs. Vinyl siding, fences with broken links, and gravel forms, familiar in any region, are featured in his work. His dismantling and collaging of veneers and faux-material exposes their mimicry and converts them into monuments to these memories.

The three large-scale sculptures, Basalt, Ballast, and Bus Stop are composed of multiple store front awnings. These illuminated monoliths are instantly recognizable and yet easily overlooked by those traversing the city. The vivid colors and drum-tight vinyl that seem to herald prosperity often fade and loosen overtime. In Darwent’s work, these events offer opportunity to patch and transform, becoming painterly swatches of colors and shapes.

Shane Darwent is a studio artist whose interdisciplinary practice fuses architecture, sculpture, painting and photography to explore the poetic potential of the ex urban built vernacular. Strip mall architecture, parking lot design and various construction processes and facades inform an approach to making work that is equal parts curious, critical and reverential. Exhibiting internationally, Darwent has been an artist-in-residence at Ragdale, the Ucross Foundation and the Jentel Artist Residency Program, as well as a Core Fellow at Penland School of Crafts. He holds his MFA from the University of Michigan and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Recent exhibition venues include Spencer Brownstone Gallery in New York, the Art Gallery of Windsor, Wasserman Projects in Detroit, Belger Arts Center in Kansas City, the Spring Break Art Show, and Oklahoma Contemporary in Oklahoma City. Darwent is currently an artist-in-residence at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.