In Season 2 Episode 9 of The Art Career Podcast, Emily McElwreath interviews artist Shona McAndrew. Together they take a deep dive into body acceptance, the female gaze and explore Shona's life and career. 

Shona McAndrew (b. 1990) was born in Paris and lives and works in Philadelphia. She holds an MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (2016) and a BA in Psychology and Painting from Brandeis University (2012). She had a solo sculptural installation at Art Omi inGhent, NY (2021), a solo show of life sculptures at Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts at UAB, Birmingham, AL (2021), which traveled from Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA (2020). Previous solo exhibitions also include CHART, New York, NY (2019 & 2021) and Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY (2019). Shona has a upcoming solo show at CHART in February 2023.

McAndrew’s painted papier-mâché sculptures, digital collages and paintings depict women in their most private moments, taking pleasure in twirling untrimmed pubic hair, squeezing soft bellies, or a hand casually warming itself in the fold of a crotch.  Life-size, or often slightly larger than human scale, the works draw from personal experience and observation to call attention to the simultaneous banality and importance of fleeting, introspective, and vulnerable moments.

Unembarrassed by their exposed bodies and confrontational towards our careless voyeurism, Shona’s women ask us to valorize mundane activities of body exploration, self-care, and forgetting to see one’s self through the critical eyes of others.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/TAC today and get 10% off your first month.

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Music: Chase Johnson

Editing: Zach Worden