Fine Arts: Shana McCaw

Shana McCaw

Sculpture, Foundations

Associate Professor

.::. Contact .::.
Call: 414.410.4102
Message: semmcaw@stritch.edu
Visit: Website


.::. Bio .::.

Shana McCaw, CSU Visual Art Dept. faculty specializing in 3-D design and sculpture, has collaborated for the past ten years with her husband Brent Budsberg in sculpture, performance and site-specific installation, and more recently with photography and video. Their work often incorporates scale models to explore notions of scale, deception and suspension of disbelief. A 19^th century Midwestern farmhouse, often depicted in unlikely or impossible scenarios, has emerged as a central character in their work. Through it, they examine the psychology of place, ancestral memory, and the passage of time.  Shana and Brent are also founding members of the WhiteBoxPainters, a performance art group specializing in large-scale, temporary public projects. Shana currently teaches at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and Cardinal Stritch University. Brent is a supervisor at the Steve Lacey 3-D Lab at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. He is also a musician, and has built numerous set pieces for the theatre/film industry. The two received the Mary Nohl Fellowship for Individual Artists in the Established category in 2008. 

Recent exhibitions include solo shows at American Fantasy Classics in Milwaukee, WI, Lynden Sculpture Garden in River Hills, WI and the James Watrous Gallery in Madison, WI.  Group exhibitions include “Out of the Suitcase IV” at the Layton Gallery/Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in Milwaukee, WI; the Nohl Fellows Exhibition at The Institute of Visual Arts in Milwaukee, WI; “Descendant,” a solo exhibition at the Wright Museum of Art in Beloit, WI; and “Current Tendencies: Ten Artists from Wisconsin,” at the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee, WI.  In May, 2011, the two were in residence in Wendover, UT with the Center for Land Use Interpretation (based in Los Angeles, CA).  Their residency project, a book of photographs, is now part of the collection at the Nevada Museum of Art’s Center for Art + Environment. 

Shana received a BFA from Cardinal Stritch University in 1996 and a MFA from Cranbrook Acendemy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI in 1999.

.::. Artist Statement .::.

Our work explores architecture as common ground upon which the conflicts and tensions linking past and present may quarre l. Old buildings are concrete evidence that our ancestors were once here, and they exhibit the patina of past work, ideals, and desires. Time travels through or perhaps around architecture, providing a way to see into the past. But the rippled windows of a long-forgotten house are also portals through which the past can see us. When we inhabit the structures built by our ancestors, we are influenced by the ideals and philosophies of the people who built them. These biases are imposed upon us as we walk dark, dusty halls. For some this provides a sense of continuity and pride, for others it is a burden - the principles of our ancestors often starkly contrast our own. These are the tensions, intersections and collisions of past and present that we endeavor to understand through our work.

.::. Fall 2012 Course Schedule .::.

ART150 C Understanding Art (TR 11:00-12:20)

ART150 D Understanding Art (TR 1:10-2:30)

ART509 Sculpture (Every other Saturday 1:30-6:00)