Shona Neary / Sketchy Shona
I am Shona Neary, known publicly as Sketchy Shona. This is the current record of my artist practice, work, places and routes into the archive.
One artist, two public names
I am Shona Neary, known professionally as Sketchy Shona. I studied Fine Art at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and work between Berlin, New York City and Philadelphia, travelling beyond those bases for projects. I make paintings, drawings, objects, murals, tattoos, installations and public work.
I use painting, drawing, murals, installation, tattoos, objects and public work. Those forms have different audiences and conditions. A painting belongs to a particular surface and room; a mural meets people outdoors; a tattoo becomes part of someone’s body. The archive keeps those differences visible while showing how an image can move between them.
What the work attends to
I paint figures from the bones outward, building them layer by layer. Bodies, hands, faces and ordinary objects can carry pressure, vulnerability, humour or a sense that something familiar has shifted. I am interested in what remains human when systems classify, optimize and mediate the way we live. That question is present in the work, but it does not give every painting one fixed meaning.
Material and setting matter to me. Patina can show contact and time; a room changes how an image is encountered; a mark on skin has a different duration from one on canvas. Looking across paintings, drawings, objects and public projects helps me understand those changes without treating the formats as interchangeable.
As an image leaves the studio, it meets new conditions. A wall meets people moving through a place, an object enters daily use and an installation changes how a room is experienced. Each shift asks me to think about scale, material and attention in a different way. The artist-owned cultural world I am building holds those forms together while leaving their differences alive.
Art practice and Countercult are related, not identical
I also founded Countercult, whose core cultural platform is open source. I bring creative culture into contact with technology, business and globalization there, exploring how cultural knowledge is represented, how digital systems shape discovery and how creative work can participate in economic life.
My artist-owned cultural world and Countercult grow from a shared attention to lived culture. Through paintings, objects, installations and public work, I make encounters with images and places. Countercult develops the wider systems through which culture can be discovered, shared and valued.
Find the record that fits your question
The portfolio gathers project and artwork records, including public murals, exhibitions and objects. My About page gives the fuller biography, while the commission page describes work with people, organisations and places. I work from Berlin, New York City and Philadelphia, and travel beyond those bases when a project calls for it.
For collecting, the current listings identify available originals; project and exhibition pages record work made in a particular setting. Personally retained work is not for sale. For a commission, send the location, intended setting, form and timing through the commission route. This Journal entry connects the work under both Shona Neary and Sketchy Shona.