The Santa Fe-based artist Paul Shapiro had a profound influence on the trajectory of Southwestern landscape painting. Through his abstract style, the American artist creates paintings, pastels, and mixed media collages evocative of landscapes, their dynamic forms inspired by the artist’s visits to New Mexico in the 70’s and 80’s. His more modern works leave landscape behind but retain the dramatic energy of abstraction, concerned with depicting a pre-matter state, perhaps inspired by Shapiro’s early interest in biology.