Shawn Teseo Ballarin
Shawn Teseo Ballarin
Artist Statement
I think of my work as formal experiments grounded in pleasure and aesthetics. My approach allows for improvisation and surprises, similar to when I am recording music. I enjoy seeing how the different layers interact when combined together.
As I make these pieces, the combination of intended and accidental compositions and patterns are ultimately an exercise in the soothing quality of art: A reflection of the human tendency to find peace, or even beauty, both in the face of struggle, confusion, and pain and in our processes for living through them.
Artist Bio
Shawn Teseo Ballarin is an artist living in Lincoln, Nebraska. He received his BFA from the University of Nebraska and attended graduate school at Illinois State University. Currently he has a fellowship with the Lux Center for the Arts. Over the last few years he has exhibited paintings and prints across the Midwest, completed a variety of private commissions, painted a large mural in Chicago and created album art that appeared in both Rolling Stone and Spin magazines.
Since Art School, Ballarin has worked in 3 print shops including the Chicago Print Collaborative, Constellation Studios and the Lux Center for the Arts. His print Midnight Rybbon was included in the 2021 Nebraska Artist Biennial at the 1516 Gallery in Omaha Nebraska. Most recently in May 2022, Ballarin exhibited 22 framed prints at Turbine Flats in Lincoln.
Nebraska