Muralist and teacher Ernest Shaw Jr., now 53, showed artistic promise even as a child. His artistic and musical family saw and encouraged his talent. Photo by Justin Tsucalas

• Share

PRINT

Baltimore native and visionary artist Ernest Shaw Jr. is a unique storyteller. In his decades-long career, Shaw, 53, has won numerous awards and accolades for his dignified and spirited images of the people of the African diaspora and their impact on American culture.

This month, Shaw’s paintings of this complex story are exhibited in his solo show, “Continuous Line,” displayed at Baltimore’s “Gallery in the Sky” on the top floor observation level of the Inner Harbor’s World Trade Center.

Shaw believes, as James Baldwin said, “Art has to be a kind of confession.” He says his art is witness to everything he studied and learned, and “illustrates aspects of the Black experience from a historical, social and cultural perspective” that extends back thousands of years.

In his artistic narrative, Shaw seeks to dispel the myth that African culture was lost and forgotten in the violence and chaos of history. Instead, he sees a lasting and unbroken connection.

Shaw’s own storyline starts in West Baltimore, where he was raised by a creative family of musicians, dancers and visual artists.

West Baltimore prodigy

As a child, he was influenced by his mother’s passion for painting, and by family visits to museums and theaters. Today, his inspirations range from Impressionism to the rhythms of West African drums to his own Baltimore upbringing and education.

“It’s not easy to raise a child artist,” Shaw admitted. “I was blessed to be raised by two parents who provided for me everything I needed.”

Since second grade, Shaw was afforded the opportunity to attend the first gifted-and-talented program in Baltimore City. He feels that nurturing environment set the trajectory of his life.

Shaw went on to earn a B.A. from Morgan State University and an M.F.A. from Howard University. In blue-collar Baltimore tradition, he worked in quality control at Bethlehem Steel to fund his education.

Shaw’s devotion to educating and mentoring young artists led him to teach in Baltimore public schools and as an adjunct professor at MICA and Towson University.

In 2019, he was artist in residence at Motor House, a creative hub in the arts and entertainment district of Station North.

Murals of Toni Morrison, others

Baltimoreans may be acquainted with Shaw’s murals, which have decorated the city for more than 20 years. He sees his accessible, public canvas of street art as a way to overcome negative stereotypes of Black men and women.

In collaboration with other muralists, he depicts vibrant icons of Black history, hoping to remind the community of “the beauty of being an African in America.”

In 2019, Shaw painted a mural in honor of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison in Baltimore’s famed Graffiti Alley. He considered her passing, at age 88 in August 2019, not a loss but “an acquiring of an ancestor.”

Shaw works in multiple media, including acrylic, graphite, charcoal, oil pastels, oil stick and colored pencils, to bring his subjects to life. Some of his more famous subjects include such notables as James Baldwin, Aretha Franklin and Pablo Picasso.

His goal is not to recreate an exact likeness but to “capture the spirit as I see it.”

Shaw believes the essence of his subjects lies in the eyes; they bring the image to life by gazing out from the canvas and communicating with the audience.

He produces each work methodically but quickly, often in less than a week. “I sketch for an hour, leave it, rework. Then I may lay down an underpainting. The whole thing could take 16 or 20 hours over four or five days.”

A focus on ancestors

For more than 20 years, Shaw studied all aspects of West African culture. In so doing, he undertook a journey of self-discovery, in which he became aware of the influence of ancestral culture in his present life.

“I learned more about myself during that process than I did about my brothers and sisters on the continent,” he said.

What guides his brushstrokes, Shaw said, are the themes of family, ancestry, community, resilience and truth.

Painting is his way of “pouring libations,” referring to the ritual that many cultures perform to honor their ancestors. In African cultures, this ceremony of pouring liquid in homage was considered essential and has lived on in the descendants of the diaspora.

For Shaw, art is more than just skill and self-expression. Art must create a meaningful interaction between the artist and the audience.

In both his large- and small-scale works, he aims to expand our understanding of the African American experience. Blackness is more than “the antithesis of whiteness,” he said.

“Authentic portrayals of the Black body are of particular interest to me simply because there is no other subject I find to be as complex, misrepresented and misunderstood,” he wrote in the artist’s statement on his website.

Shaw believes art must be used as a tool against oppression of any kind, transforming the artist into an “image maker” — one who, he said, “highlights the humanity of the viewer by illustrating the humanity of the subject.”

The “Continuous Line” exhibit of works by Ernest Shaw Jr. is presented by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, and is on display through Sunday, April 17 on the top floor of the World Trade Center, located at 401 East Pratt St.

The Top of the World Observation Level, where the exhibit is located, is open Thursday through Sunday. Admission to that level is $8 ($6 for 60+; $5 for children 3 and up). The exhibition can be viewed at no additional cost.