Shona Neary / Sketchy Shona
I am Shona Neary, known as Sketchy Shona, working across Berlin, New York City and Philadelphia in painting, objects, murals, tattoos, installations and cultural projects.
The work has more than one surface
I am Shona Neary, working publicly as Sketchy Shona. I move between Berlin and New York, making paintings, drawings, objects, murals, tattoos, installations and the rooms that hold them. These are not separate services to me. They are different places where the same marks can gather and change.
A drawing can become a painting. A painting can become an object or a room. A mark can travel onto skin, furniture, a wall or a public gathering. I follow that movement because it shows how a body of work grows from one decision into another.
An archive gives the marks somewhere to go
The paintings hold bodies, faces, hands, objects, pressure and atmosphere. The projects carry those concerns into a home, a street, a studio, a residency, a gallery or a room that needs a stronger centre.
My archive keeps those relationships visible. It lets someone begin with an original painting, sculpture, mural, Ink work or exhibition record, then see how one mark has continued through different materials and situations. A mark becomes a body of work, and the body of work becomes an archive I can keep building.
Original work for a particular room
The shop holds a changing selection of original artwork and available work. Each painting or study has its own history, surface and scale. Some belong to earlier parts of the practice, while others sit closer to the chapters I am developing now.
To collect an original work is to give that history a new room in which to continue. The listing includes the available details, and I can answer practical questions about dimensions, condition, framing, collection and insured shipping before a purchase.
Commissions that leave something behind
I take on selected commissions when there is a real reason for the work to exist. That can mean a painting for a home, a mural for a public place, a group of works for a new office, or a visual environment for a brand, hotel, restaurant or cultural project.
I begin with the place, the people, the scale, the atmosphere and the problem the work needs to answer, rather than copying a reference image. The result might be a painting, object, mural, installation or connected visual system. It should remain recognisably mine while giving its new context an identity it can keep.
The Floor is part of the archive
The Floor is my Berlin home, studio and residency room. It is a physical place to test ideas, host people and let work be seen before it has settled into a final category.
The residency programme begins in November 2026. It belongs to the wider practice of paintings and projects, but has its own purpose: a room where artists can arrive, work, exchange and develop something with enough time around it.
Follow the work through its own records
The archive is easier to understand when each project keeps its own place. Klunkerkranich is a Berlin club where I have worked through drawing, painting and live cultural experience. Teufelsberg carries a Berlin Späti rave into a large public wall. Life in Progress follows painting into the body and the room, while my residency and mural records hold the people, places and conditions around the work.
I keep these projects separate because a painting, a mural, a tattoo, a residency and a night in a club do different things. Together they show how one practice moves between an original work, a public place and the people who gather there. The Journal also holds my notes on place-specific commissions, the city guides I have made through working in Berlin, and the development of THE FLOOR.
If you are looking for an original, a commission or a collaboration with the practice, the links below lead to the relevant part of the archive. I keep client work within the limits of the permissions around it, and give each public project its own record.
Building the institution in public
I share longer studio notes, release dates, available originals and project records through the studio list. The public Journal gives the archive room to hold more than one image or announcement.
The website, the Journal, the original works and The Floor are all part of the institution I am building. If you are looking for a work, considering a commission or following the development of The Floor, begin with the relevant part of the site and join the list. I want the people paying attention to be able to follow the work over time.
Images from this journal record
Sketchy Shona: an artist, an archive and the work around it / Sketchy Shona studio portrait and installation view Artwork: Sketchy Shona (Shona Neary).
Sketchy Shona: an artist, an archive and the work around it / Human Cocoon concept sketch
Sketchy Shona: an artist, an archive and the work around it / Sketchy Shona rat drawing Artwork: Sketchy Shona (Shona Neary).
Sketchy Shona: an artist, an archive and the work around it / artist studio with hanging installation
Sketchy Shona: an artist, an archive and the work around it / Sketchy Shona studio installation view
Credits
- Original Sketchy Shona studio profile and sales pathway.