Shanna Waddell’s (b. 1981, Long Beach, CA; lives and works in Los Angeles) paintings chronicle the day-to-day enterprises of an imagined artist collective: flower-farming, plein-air moonset painting, gathering supplies, utilizing the community wagons, and generally existing in a state of tranquility. This utopian commune is both an exercise in imagination and also a contemplation in dialogue with models of art history and art-making. She absorbs and adapts the primarily masculine modes of painting with pure freedom and interjects her spirit into ideas for future models of living.

Waddell received an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and a BFA in Drawing and Painting from the California State University, Long Beach. Selected solo and group exhibitions include Micki Meng, San Francisco; M+B, Los Angeles; Thomas Erben Gallery, New York; Galerie La Croix, Paris; Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles; Ms. Barbers, Los Angles; SPF 15, San Diego; QUEENS, Los Angeles, University of the Arts, Philadelphia; Harkawik, New York; and BOZOMAG, Los Angles. Her work has been featured in BOMB magazine and she recently completed a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in California