Shayne Hull

Shayne Hull is a Louisville-based artist whose paintings and sculptures have appeared in over 150 exhibitions.  His art can be found in the collections of Brown-Forman, 21C Museum, the SNAP Foundation and the Kentucky Arts Council.  He is a recipient of the Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Fellowship and four Great Meadows Foundation Artist Professional Development Grants. Hull's work has been featured in numerous magazines including Studio Visit, Dialogue and New American Paintings.  

As a figurative painter and pyrographer, I explore the tension between identity, beauty, and the body’s negotiation with external forces—often rendering the figure in a slightly surreal space where the dramatic and humorous overlap. My work often features closecropped portraits of solitary figures in unusual situations, using exaggerated expressions, awkward gestures, or incongruous objects to suggest vulnerability and absurdity. While my work is grounded in the psychological intensity and corporeal honesty of artists like Alice Neel, Jenny Saville, Paula Rego, and Lucian Freud, it also aligns with traditions that use distortion, exaggeration, and the uncanny to reveal deeper truths, drawing on the broader influence of absurdism and surrealism.