Stephen J Shanabrook is an American conceptual artist, who lives and works in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.
He graduated from Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

, The Skowhegan School of Art

The Skowhegan School of Art

The Skowhegan School of Art is a nine week summer artists' residency located in Madison, Maine and founded there in 1947.The school invites applicants to submit artworks as slides, which are then judged by a jury of school governors and artists. During the summer work period, artists are given...

 program, USA and de Ateliers, The Netherlands.

Concept and Work

Stephen J Shanabrook first became well known for making special kinds of chocolate pralinés from casts of wounds on dead bodies from morgues in Russia and North America.http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/07/stephen-j-shanabrook-food-art/ Son of an obstetrician and the town coroner, as a child Shanabrook worked at a chocolate factory in a small town in Ohio. Overlapping these oppositional influences the artist created a unique vision of beauty, one on the threshold of death, pain and disaster. Shanabrook gives a new and often disturbing meaning to substances and forms otherwise associated with comfort, happiness and banality. His most recent chocolate pieces was a life size cast of the remnants of an 18 year old suicide bomber. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d34UDxLl-Fo "By molding chocolates on the wounds on the corpses, Shanabrook tries to supplement the horrific image of the wounds with the seductive smell of the chocolates. And from the responses he gets from the public, it seems that the more people observe the pralinés, the more they forget about the fact that they are molded on the corpses, and give in to the enjoyment of the smell." - states Renata Salecl

Renata Salecl

Renata Salecl is a Slovenian philosopher, sociologist and legal theorist. She is a senior researcher at the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana...

 in her Athens Biennale lecture. In his work Shanabrook often deals with the subject of addiction, actual or metaphoric. http://shanabrook.aeroplastics.net/artwork.php?title=heroin_moth_collection_01&cat=heroin His book "Chasing the Dragon

Chasing the dragon

"Chasing the dragon" refers to inhaling the vapor from heated morphine, heroin, oxycodone or opium that has been placed on a piece of foil...

"http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002ACRX06 takes its name from slang phrase of Cantonese origin referring to inhaling the smoke from heated morphine or heroin.

Notable exhibitions

Stephen J Shanabrook has shown his works worldwide, including such a venues as Moscow Biennale

Moscow Biennale

The Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art is one of the most important Russian cultural events and was founded in 2003.- First Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art :...

, The State Tretyakov Gallery and Wax Museum

Wax museum

A wax museum or waxworks consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses....

 in Moscow; MoMA

Moma

Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...

, MOCA

MOCA

-Museums:* Museum of Chinese in America, a museum in New York City which exhibits Chinese American history* Museum of Contemporary Art , any of several museums with this title...

, Drawing Center

Drawing Center

The Drawing Center is a SoHo museum and the only nonprofit exhibition space in the United States to focus solely on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary.- Location and activities :...

, Swiss Institute, Exit Art

Exit Art

Exit Art is a non-profit cultural center established in 1982. Located in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City, United States, the two-story gallery exhibits contemporary visual art, installation, video, theater, and performance....

, Artists Space and Anthology Film Archives

Anthology Film Archives

__notoc__Anthology Film Archives is a film archive and theater located at 32 Second Avenue on the corner of East Second Street in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City devoted to the preservation and exhibition of experimental film. It is the only non-profit organization of its...

 in New York; Sotheby’s Mezzanine Gallery in London and Rochdale Museum in Scotland; CAN

CAN

- Organizations :* Andean Community of Nations, a South American trade bloc with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru* Campus Antiwar Network, an American network of students opposing the occupation of Iraq...

, Contemporary Art Center and Musee d'art et d'histoire

Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire , is a museum located in the historical city of Saint-Denis, France, in the northern outskirts of Paris....

 in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Shanabrook's works include in many private collections in USA, Europe and Russia as well as in collection of professional gambler turned most provocative collector David Walsh

David Walsh

David or Dave Walsh may refer to:* David I. Walsh , American politician, governor of Massachusetts, and U.S. Senator* David Walsh , American voice actor...

 http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/a-subversive-disneyland-at-the-end-of-the-world/21204, in his Museum of Old and New Art

Museum of Old and New Art

The Museum of Old and New Art is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in Australia. The museum presents antiquities, modern and contemporary art from the David Walsh collection...

 (MONA)http://www.wmagazine.com/artdesign/2011/01/tasmania_museum_of_old_and_new_art in Tasmania, Australia. As well as in collections of The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia; Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Poland; Mars Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, USA. His work L.O.V.E. as a List Of Vicarious Edges http://shanabrook.aeroplastics.net/artwork.php?title=pain_confection_love_01&img=1&cat=pain_confection is a part of Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst

Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...

 "murderme" collection. Fashion Label Comme des Garçons

Comme des Garçons

Comme des Garçons, written コム・デ・ギャルソン in Japanese and French for "Like Boys," is a Japanese fashion label headed by Rei Kawakubo, who owns the company with her husband Adrian Joffe....

 used images of "Paper Surgery" http://www.stephenshanabrook.com/papersurgery1.htm Project by Stephen J Shanabrook and Veronika Georgieva for their ad campaign Spring/Summer 2010 http://feelslikewhitelightning.blogspot.com/2010/02/fashion-and-art-and-drugs.html. As a duo Stephen J Shanabrook and Veronika Georgieva together with Saatchi and Saatchi advertising agency created ad campaign for 25th anniversary of Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...

 in 2010 http://en.rsf.org/spip.php?page=article&id_article=37398, which included TV commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3TX_03Ta1Y. The campaign was shortlisted for Lion award at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival

Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in advertising and related fields. The seven-day festival, incorporating the awarding of the Lions awards, is held yearly at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France...

http://www.canneslions.com/work/press/entry.cfm?entryid=11842&award=99.