Artist Biography
Shea Maze is an interdisciplinary Artist and Chef who creates biologically inspired sculptures, and multi-sensory experiences that prioritize the use of materials and inspiration from the natural world. His practice aims to deconstruct, analyze, capture, and honor the complexity of life while combatting an ever-producing society of existential distractions and quick thrills fueled by consumerism. Shea’s work reaches into the past, with feet planted firmly in the present. He seeks to emphasize warmth, heritage, tradition and perseverance, with a lens made mirky by Black diaspora. He creates at an intersection of ancestry and the unknown, often informed by history.
Shea would like to believe that through using his identity and environment as the catalyst for his work, he is making art more approachable, thus helping cultivate interconnectedness among our communities, art, and nature.
Artist Statement
The “Red Caps” of Union Depot were a group of predominantly black porters responsible for greeting travelers, handling bags, and maintaining Union Depot through various daily tasks for nearly 90 years. Through the height of railway transportation, these men made Saint Paul shine, all while being paid low wages and relying primarily on gratuity. I believe these are grounds to assert that these men were responsible for many travelers’ first impressions of Saint Paul, and the perception of the city in general.
Many Red Caps were community leaders in Rondo and are credited with building a healthy black middle class there. Although this era of Rondo was dismantled by structural racism, the values these men instilled in their community lives on today through their successors.
My connection to Saint Paul starts with my Grandmother’s connection to Rondo, where she would spend her summers as a young girl. It was the fondness with which she recounted these memories that was the catalyst in my partner and I considering Saint Paul as the place we would start our family.
Stay Connected
Instagram: @shea_maze_art
