BELLEVUE, WA.- Bellevue Arts Museum presents Crossing Boundaries, a mid-career survey of the innovative work of artist Randy Shull. On view from October 11, 2008 through January 11, 2009, this exhibition is comprised of approximately 30 pieces that obscure the traditional limits differentiating functional furniture and expressive sculpture.

Shull’s distinct style is characterized by poly-chromed surfaces coupled with the use of traditional tools, woodworking techniques and modest materials such as rugged wood, plywood and paint. Shull’s work, like the materials he uses, crosses boundaries. It confronts many issues stimulated by the blurring of craft, art and design, such as the relation of meaning to material, pure function to content and personal expression. His work is deeply embedded with meaning, and addresses a wide range of topics such as virtue, greed, death, love, family, community and our relationship to the natural and human made environments.

Randy Shull, whose father was a carpenter and mother an expert gardener, was exposed to construction and design from an early age. Out of these roots, Shull expanded his artistic reach from furniture-making to painting, and from there to interior architecture and landscape design. After witnessing the devastating affects of Hurricane Hugo in 1989, Shull was captivated by nature’s strength and began using salvaged, ravaged wood and other modest materials for his sculptural pieces to express an emotional and tangible merging of art and nature.

Shull received his BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, NY in 1986 and artist residencies at the Penland School of Crafts, NC in 1986 and 1989 - 1991, and the Altos de Chavon Cultural Center in La Romana, Dominican Republic in 1992. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions and public collections throughout the country, including: the Museum of Arts & Design, NY; Mint Museum of Craft + Design, NC; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; and the Racine Art Museum, WI. This exhibition was organized by the Gregg Museum of Art & Design, North Carolina State University. Support for this exhibition was provided by the Windgate Charitable Foundation, Friends of the Gregg and the NCA Arts Council. The local showing of this exhibition is made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the City of Bellevue.