Shannon Landis Hansen

For me, painting takes place on two levels. The first level is the obvious one -- the surface of the image which I try to capture on paper or canvass. But that's really just a way of getting at the second level, all the things going on below the surface. These are the hidden truths inside of every person and every thing.

For example, I love to capture my subjects in the middle of a "micro-expression" -- a smirk, a smile, a scowl -- that lasts less than a second but reveals so much about the person inside.

My childhood was spent moving from place to place – boisterous construction camps in the Pacific Northwest, a fishing village at the mouth of the Columbia River, a boarding house on the plains of Montana, a small brick house in Memphis, Tennessee. With all of this moving about, I needed a refuge which I could call my own -- I found it in reading and art.


I’ve worked with some great teachers, but I’m essentially self-taught. I started as a watercolorist, winning awards at the National Academy of Design and San Diego Watercolor Society, among others. Working in other mediums such as assemblage and sculpture, I’ve participated in group and one-woman shows at the Dickson Art Center, UCLA, the Santa Barbara Contemp...

(Last 15 years)
2016 “Uncommon Materials”, Group Show. LeMieux Galleries, New Orleans
2015 “Going for Broken”, LeMieux Galleries
2014 “Water Water Everywhere”, Group show. LeMieux Galleries
2013 “Ba-Roke”, LeMieux Galleries
2011 “The Emancipated Figure”, Group show. LSU Student Union Gallery,
Baton Rouge, LA
2011 “Breaking Muse”, LeMieux Galleries
2010 “Growing Pains”, Group show. LeMieux Galleries
2009 “Handbroken”, Gallery of Functional Art, Bergamot Station,
Santa Monica, CA
2008 “Still Standing,” Public Art Grant for Arts Council of New Orleans
and Joan Mitchell Foundation, New Orleans, LA
2008 “History of Lamps,” Longvue House, New Orleans, LA
2007 “Dem’s Da Breaks,” Perrin Benham Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2007 “Breaking the Surface”, Gallery of Functional Art, Santa Monica, CA
2006 “Spring Breaks”, Perrin Benham Gallery
2004 “Picking Up the Pieces”, El Camino College, El Camino, CA
2003 “No Bad Breaks”, Gallery of Functional Art, Santa Monica, CA
2002 “Wisecracks”, Gallery of Functional Art, Santa Monica, CA
2003 Functional Art Group Show, Cal Poly Pomona, CA
2002 “Lucky Breaks”, Gallery of Functional Art, Santa Monica, CA