David Shapiro’s (b. 1944, Brooklyn, New York; d. 2014, New York, New York) paintings and prints, often simple in their compositions but complex in their details, evoke Buddhist and Hindu ideas of meditation, concentration, and energy. The titles of Shapiro’s pieces—such as Savasan, Clearing, and Origin and Return—reflect his interest in these Eastern practices of spiritual contemplation. Shapiro developed a signature style of partitioned compositions through which he created meditative awareness and contemplative tranquility using a complex union of color, texture, light, and form. He equated his work to the opposing metaphors of the limitlessness of the warp and weft of weaving and the inward centering associated with wheel pottery. Shapiro studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture before earning his BFA from Pratt Institute and his MFA from Indiana University. Shapiro’s work is included in many public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Mint Museum, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art in Nagoya, Japan, and the Kunsthalle Der Stadt in Nuremberg, Germany.