Sam Shoemaker

B. 1991, Lives and works in Los Angeles

 

EDUCATION:

  • M.F.A. Yale University (sculpture), 2020

  • B.F.A. California Institute of the Arts, 2014.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

  • Solo Exhibition ‘More Permanent Than Snow’ Ochi, Los Angeles, CA/ July-August 2022

  • Solo Exhibition ‘Walking’ Cafe Quoi Sculpture Garden, Los Angeles, CA/ August 2021

  • Solo Exhibition 'Play Pen', Nous Tous Gallery, Los Angeles, CA/ June-July 2018

  • Solo Exhibition 'Hobby Room', House Guest, Los Angeles, CA/ September 2017

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

  • ‘As Air, As Water’ LACC VAMA gallery, Los Angeles, CA/ March- May 2026

  • ‘Second Nature’, Ochi Gallery, Sun Valley, ID/ June-August 2025

  • ‘GODMODADOGGEREL’, Los Angeles, CA/ November 2024

  • ‘World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project’, California African American

    Museum (CAAM), Los Angeles, CA/ Sep 2024-March 2025

  • ‘Unseen Orchestra’, Make Room, Los Angeles, CA/ February-March 2024

  • ‘David Hammons’, JOAN, Los Angeles, CA/ February-March 2024

  • ‘Cardinal Index’, House of Seiko, San Francisco, CA/ January-February 2023

  • ‘Until All is Resolved’, Emma Gray HQ, Los Angeles, CA/ December-January 2023

  • ‘Burning The Wheel of the Year’, Species, Atlanda, GA/ August-September 2022

  • ‘Plants Now!’, Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA/ July-August 2022

  • ‘Salon’, Armor Corp, Venice, CA/ January-February 2022

  • ‘Expanded Field’, OCHI Gallery, Los Angeles, CA/ October-November 2021

  • ‘Jupiter Finger’, Harkawik, Los Angeles, CA/ July 2021

  • ‘No Deep Kissing’, Yale thesis exhibition, New Haven, CT/ March 2020

  • ‘Banquet’, In Lieu Gallery, Los Angeles/ December 2019- January 2020

  • ‘In zwei- oder dreihundert Jahren wird das Leben auf der Erde unvorstellbar schön sein (In two or three hundred years life on earth will be unimaginably beautiful)’, Espace Nalon, Esslingen, Germany/ July-August 2019

  • ‘On The Homefront’, Lubov Gallery, New York, NY/ August 2018

  • ‘Sub Terrain’, Figures on a Landscape, Los Angeles, CA/ November 2017

  • ‘Selected Works’, Page N.Y.C., New York, NY/ Aug 2016

  • ‘Polymorphic material fog rolls over their morning pathway’, Two-Person Exhibition with William Shea, Human Interest Group, Dallas, TX/ July 2016

  • ‘Stitch, Woven, Interlocking’, Kunstverein Letschebach. Karlsruhe, Germany/ 2015

  • Stitch, Driveway 327, Venice, CA/ Aug 2015Group exhibition "The Armory Show and Tell" Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA. Collaboration with Shirley Tse / 2013

PRESS

  • “Artist Creates Mushroom Kayak And Paddles From Catalina Island To Los Angeles” Paddling Magazine, September 2025

  • “He crossed 26 miles in a kayak made from mushrooms – and lived to tell the tale” The Guardian, September 2025

  • “Cafe 2001 Review” Los Angeles Times, Bill Addison, September 2025

  • “Interview with Sam Shoemaker” KCRW Press Play with Madeleine Brand, September 2025

  • “Mushroom Kingdom: Mycelium Manufacturers from Hermès to Cadillac” Reasons to Be Cheerful, September 2025

  • “Planting for the Future: The Artists Pushing Ecological Art Forward” W Magazine, Jori Finkel, December 2024

  • “Sam Shoemaker and the mushroom kayak”, Paddling Magazine, Joe Potoczak, Fall 2024

    “The Art of Growing Your Own Mushrooms” LA Times Today, May 2024

  • “Celebratory and Mournful Clay Biennial at Craft Contemporary” Artillery, July 2023

  • “L.A. Harvest featuring Sam Shoemaker” CARLA (Contempoary Art Review Los Angeles), June 2023

  • “Editor’s Pick’s” CARLA (Contempoary Art Review Los Angeles), August 2022

  • Must See Exhibitions in Los Angeles, Artforum/ August 2022

  • “Art and Mycology with Sam Shoemaker” Mushroom Hour Podcast, June 2022

  • “9 Emerging Artists to Discover at NADA Miami 2021”, Galarie Magazine/ December 2021

  • “Art as A Vessel for Mycology” Mushroom Magazine/ Autumn 2021

  • “Fungal Forms & Basement Cultivation with Artist Sam Shoemaker” North Spore, Black Trumpet Journal/ June 2021

  • “Playing and Parking”, Graphite Journal, no. 4, Lauren Steinberg, UCLA, 2013

AWARDS

  • Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Grant in support of Mushroom Boat 2025

    Pasadena Art Alliance Grant in support of Mushroom Boat 2025

    Perenchio Foundation Grant in support of Mushroom Boat 2025

    Pasadena Arts and Culture Commission and City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division Grant in support of Mushroom Boat 2025

    Hopper Prize (finalist)/ Spring 2022

    Dean’s Critical Practice Research Grant, Yale University/ 2020

    George R. Bunker Honorary Award, Yale University/ 2020

CURATORIAL:

  • Jace Space

    • Solo exhibition and performance 'ENDBRINGER / HEAVEN AS HIGH AS THIS / PRESSING A FLOWER BETWEEN PLANES /', Patrick Michael Ballard/ July 2018

    • Two Person Exhibition 'Moss and Well', Tasha Romano and Vanessa Shih/ July 2018

    • Solo Exhibition 'Proposal for a Self Referential Book', Dennis Buck/ July 2018

    • Solo Exhibition 'Dim Beam Simulcast', Amia Yokoyama/ June 2018

    • Solo Exhibition at House Guest co-curated with Patrick Michael Ballard 'Rule of a High Priest Volume II', Anne Guro Larsmon/ May 2018

    • Solo Exhibition co-curated with Patrick Michael Ballard 'Rule of a High Priest Volume I', Anne Guro Larsmon/ May 2018

    • Screening 'Resonance', a collaboration between Jesse Matthew Clark and Elias Pack/ May 2018

    • Solo Exhibition 'Dora Drawings', Andre Filipek/ November 2017

    • Solo Exhibition 'Feeding Time', Evans Wittenberg/ August 2017

    • Group Exhibition 'Hgggggggggggh', Emmanuella Soria Ruiz, Ananya Ramanan, Sascha Yurchak and Jon Merritt/ June-July 2017

    • Group Exhibition 'Mindsculptor', Bryan Morello, Rebecca Lieb, Paul J. McKee and Will Shea/ December 2016

    • Group Exhibition 'Domestic Observations', Kate Mosher Hall, Monika Uchiyama, Alice Lang, Winnie Herbstein, and Magnus Flowers / November 2016