Joel Shackleford (b. 1989- ) is an American Artist. He was born in Santiago, Republica Dominicana. Currently residing in Buffalo, NY.
He is a multidisciplinary self-taught artist who returned to painting in 2014, after years of rejection to art school programs. The need to counter drug addiction and alcoholism was the draw to pick up painting again. The escape into the canvas for hours or days was the healing that other vices could not fill. Shackleford’s painting style has evolved with time. From his early figurative art pieces to his most contemporary works, the underlying fingerprint is Shackleford’s identity and experiences as a Black man growing up on the East Side of Buffalo, NY. Growing up in Buffalo, a still very segregated city, inspired Shackleford to explore more of a political narrative and to include images of people from his community and abroad who identify through similar life experiences.
