William Shearburn Gallery St. Louis: 4735 McPherson Avenue * Saint Louis, Missouri 63108

Reception for the Artist: Friday, May 15th 6–8 pm

"Social issues are incredibly important to me, and my work will always have some relation to an issue that I am currently burdened with. In the past this has included racism and genocide, and my current and future work will deal with gun violence and soldiers' mental states upon returning from war." - Craig Norton

Craig Norton makes work of remarkable directness. His ideas arrive channeled through his incredibly fine skills as a draftsman. Amazingly, he uses only a 29 cent Bic pen as a drawing implement to draw photorealistic faces with a stippling technique. Hundreds of thousands of dots give the faces realism and depth. Wallpaper collages build the clothes of the figures. Most recently, Norton's pieces have consisted of large-scale vignettes involving dozens of figures per scene.

Craig Norton is a self-taught artist who lives and works in St. Louis. This will be the artist's first solo exhibition at William Shearburn Gallery. Craig was recently invited to participate in the 2009-2010 Vancouver Biennial and is a part of New York's Drawing Center viewing program.