Shawn Teseo Ballarin is an artist based in Lincoln, Nebraska. He holds
a Fellowship at the Lux Center for the Arts and is represented by
Modern Arts Midtown in Omaha. Ballarin earned his BFA from the
University of Nebraska and attended graduate school at Illinois State
University. His work spans a variety of media, including painting,
printmaking, photography, video, and bookmaking. He is also a musician
and the founding member of Heavier Than Air, an experimental ensemble
featuring video art with a live soundtrack.

Ballarin's projects have included public murals, private commissions, teaching,
and album art that appeared in Rolling Stone and Spin magazines.

In 2024, Ballarin's work was displayed in the group show "Come On,
Come Over" at Wesleyan University in Lincoln and "Visual Remedy:
Please the Eye - Feed the Mind" at Modern Arts Midtown in Omaha. He
also presented a multi-channel video installation with music at Turbine Flats in
Lincoln.



STATEMENT

I think of my work as formal experiments grounded in pleasure and aesthetics. 
My approach allows for improvisation and surprises, similar to when I am recording music.  I enjoy seeing how the different layers interact when combined together. 

As I make these pieces, the combination of intended and acidental compositions and patterns are ultimately an exercise in the soothing quality of art: A reflection of the human tendency to find peace, or even beauty, both in the face of struggle, confusion and pain and in our processes for living through them.