Shawn Bonsky was born in St. Helens Oregon, and moved to Detroit Michigan at a very young age. When he was 11 his family moved again, but this time to rural South Carolina. Shawn feels that it was this move that most influences his art. He grew up loving cities, the power lines and tall buildings everywhere, and as he was entering his teen years he experienced the beauty of open fields and empty forests. Shawn attended Florida State University with an academic scholarship, and tried to learn as much as he could about our world, about beauty and culture and about life in general.

After a few years Shawn became restless and felt he had learned all he could in a college setting, so he packed up and moved to New York City to learn about life the hard way. He wandered the streets of that great city looking for beauty and trying to learn more about life, eventually squatting in the lower east side and living in a self-made shack in Brooklyn. A couple years of this and Shawn became restless again, and this time he figured he would try Japan.

Shawn lived in Hiroshima for a couple months, had an art show, and realized that he missed the states too much to stay there. He moved to Philadelphia and fell in love with the town, and has lived there since.

Find recent press on Shawn’s work from Philadelphia City Paper, UWISHUNU, and FallonandRosof