BIOGRAPHY
Shane Townley b. 1972 | Ithaca, NY
Palm Springs, CA | Joshua Tree, CA | Laguna Beach, CA | New York, NY
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Exhibitions (1991-present)
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1994 – Platt School of Art and Design (Costa Mesa)
1998 – Worked for a newspaper in Upstate New York (Syracuse)
1999 – Commercial Graphic Designer upstate New York (Syracuse)
2004 – 2007, Gallery 104, Solo and group show exhibitions
(104 South Ola Vista, San Clemente, Ca)
2004 – San Clemente Art Festival
2005 – San Diego Art Walk Festival
2006 – Beverly Hills Arts Association Juried Show
2007 – Gallery 104 (144 Ave. Del Mar)
2007 – Lu Martin Galleries – Laguna Beach, Ca
2007 – Gallery La La – Laguna Beach, Ca
2007 – Dana Point Art Festival Juried Show
2008 – Solo Exhibition – Townley Fine Art – Cress Street, Laguna Beach, Ca
2008 – Coast Gallery – San Juan Capistrano, Ca
2008 – Cove Gallery – Laguna Beach, Ca
2008 – Lu Martin Galleries – Laguna Beach, Ca
2008 – Sawdust Art Festival – Laguna Beach, Ca
2009 – Solo Exhibition – Townley Fine Art – Cress Street, Laguna Beach, Ca
2009 – Beverly Hills Art Association Juried Show
2009 – San Diego Art Walk Festival
2009 – Solo Exhibition – Townley gallery – Laguna Beach, Ca
2009 – Sawdust Art Festival – Laguna Beach, Ca
2009 – Laguna Beach Art Association Main Beach
2010 – Sawdust Art Festival – Laguna Beach, Ca
2010 – Solo Exhibition – Townley gallery – Laguna Beach, Ca
2010 – Beverly Hills Art Association Juried Show
2010 – Palm Springs Arts Association Juried Show
2010 – Scottsdale Arizona Art Association Group Juried Show
2010 – Gallery Surface Solo Exhibition, Laguna Beach, Ca
2011 – Calabasas Art Association Juried show
2011 – Sawdust Art Festival Laguna Beach, Ca
2011 – Townley Gallery Solo Exhibition Laguna Beach, Ca
2011 – San Diego Art Walk Festival
2011 – Malibu Art Association Festival
2011 – Palm Desert Arts Association Juried Show
2012 – Calabasas Art Association Juried Show
2012 – Townley gallery Solo Exhibition
2012 – Beverly Hills Art Association Juried Show
2012 – San Diego Art Walk Festival
2012 – Solo Exhibition LGOCA – Laguna gallery of Contemporary Art – Laguna Beach, Ca
2013 – Beverly Hills Art Association Festival
2013 – Townley gallery Solo Exhibition – Laguna Beach, Ca
2013 – LGOCA – Laguna Gallery of Contemporary Art – Laguna Beach, Ca
2013 – Calabasas Art Association Juried Show
2014 – DeBilzan Gallery – Laguna Beach, Ca
2014 – Group Show Townley Gallery – Laguna Beach, Ca
2014 – Monterey Art Association Festival
2014 – Beverly Hills Art Association Festival
2014 – San Diego Art Walk Festival (April)
2015 – Townley gallery Group Show, Laguna Beach, Ca
2015 – Java Projects, Brooklyn, NYC (3 months)
2015 - Pleiades Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
2015 - Townley | Olsen Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2015 - Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ (1 Year show)
2015 - Art Fair, Art Basel, Miami, FL
2016 – San Diego Art Walk Festival (April)
2016 - Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ (Open Studio April)
2016 - Pleiades Gallery, Chelsea, NY (Group Show March)
2016 - Townley Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA (Solo Exhibition April)
2016 - Townley Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA (Group Show Exhibition August)
2016 - Georges Berges Gallery, SoHo, New York (September 8 2016)
2016 - Art at the Arboretum Benefit, Wayne New Jersey (9/24-25)
2016 - Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ (Andy Warhol and Johan Wahlstrom Sept. 25th)
2017 - Casa Romantica, San Clemente, CA (Solo Exhibition)
2018 - Tulum Mexico, artist retreat and studio residency (National Emergency series)
2019 -2020 - New York Art Center, Newyorkart.com, TriBeCa, New York
2020 - San Clemente Studio, and release of 100 originals
2021 - Honeoye Falls, New York “the old Mill” studio project
2021 - 2022 LagunaART.com gallery, the Shops at Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo, CA 92691
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"A New Surrealism" Shane Townley Art Work review by Clayton Daniels
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The art work of Shane Townley is not what it seems. Or, it is exactly what it seems. Sly, these paintings are a mix of riddles and unanswered questions. Is it a simple landscape? Or, is it a careful prompt to larger questions and understandings about our surroundings?
A simple glance is all it takes to count the elements that comprise much of Townley’s work: a calm sky, a peaceful expanse, a line of trees not too far in the distance. Sometimes he shows us a road or path, some times not. The colors are soothing but dripping with emotion and paint. The composition is familiar, peaceful in its predictability. But there is more here, much more and like the “kitchen” poems of the late Jane Kenyon and Updike’s urban wastelands, Townley’s peaceful mindscapes are anything but peaceful.
The opening sequence of David Lynch’s, “Blue Velvet,” features a long slow zoom into a classic American exterior. Crisp, clean, comfortable it embodies a storybook that is as much of a part of American mythology as is the dream that all men are created equal. Lynch, like Townley, toys with us. Because as we get closer the camera takes us from benign detachment into the top few layers of soil beneath the perfectly manicured lawn and it is here that we see a teeming hoard of writhing violent murderous insect life. In Lynch’s and Townley’s shared vision, the peaceful is not the truth. The peaceful is the myth, the mask that disguises the truth. A difficult disturbing truth we all share.
In Townley’s exquisite work we know there is chaos beneath surface. The expanse of land that takes us to the trees is false hope, unrealistic expectations that distract us from the pain and difficulty of the lives that are symbolized in that long slow walk. But it is the trees that are most telling: arranged in a synchrony of balanced meditation, they are a mirage. An idealized endpoint to life’s challenging frontier. Is there an other side? Is it as simple as stepping comfortably through the gaps between the verdant actors? No, endings are painful, ruinous. And the journey to the other side is never what we expect or dream or hope it to be.
It is this inherent deception that pushes Townley into surrealism. He presents the fantastic clothed in the realistic. Unlike Dali, a favorite of Shane’s, this surrealism is subtle and idyllic. Perhaps, an even more devastating commentary than melting
clocks and faces.
Shane Townley is an artist that asks us to think about what we don’t see. Think about the earth and our destructive path, It is here that he excels. Because by giving us what we think we want, he forces us to see what is really there.
– Clayton Daniels (arts review writer)
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TOWNLEY (b. 1972)
Studios:
2016-2017
Mana Contemporary • 888 Newark Ave #225 • Jersey City • NJ • 07306
2004 - 2009
104 : 104 South Ola Vista, San Clemente, CA 92672
2015 - 2016
Java Studios, Green point New York
2009 - 2013
570 South Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Galleries:
Townley gallery, Laguna Beach, CA 2009 - 2020
Gallery 104, San Clemente, CA 2004 - 2009
LGOCA, Laguna Beach, CA 2012 - 2022
LagunaART.com gallery, Laguna Beach, CA 2014 - 2022
New York Art Center, Newyorkart.com, TriBeCa, NY 2019 - 2020