“Alluring and dreamy…Shasha evokes the Pre-Raphaelites”
– The New York Times
Mark Shasha is an award-winning American artist. He is also an award-winning author and illustrator, an award-winning educator, an actor, and a songwriter. His paintings, drawings, and prints are found in public and private collections around the world and have appeared in museums and galleries for more than three decades. His children's books appear regularly on bestseller lists and have been read by millions worldwide.
Mark grew up by the sea in Connecticut. After graduation from Rhode Island School of Design in 1983, Shasha moved to Boston where he found work as an illustrator at newspapers and magazines including The Boston Globe, The Phoenix, Boston Magazine, and other publications.
Shasha's first book, Night of the Moonjellies (Simon & Schuster), published in 1992, was inspired by childhood memories of working at his grandmother's hot dog stand in the early 1970s. It was greeted as "a classic" by Smithsonian Magazine, received a Marion Vannett Ridgway Award and was praised by Booklist, Publisher's Weekly, Sesame Street and many others. Shasha also wrote and illustrated other works including The Hall of Beasts (Simon & Schuster), a quiet story about the magic of art.
Shasha left publishing in 1999 to return full-time to oil painting and to his studies of realism and impressionism. Today he is among the most collected of New England's emerging artists. His numerous art awards include the Guild of Boston Artists Silver Medal and Rockport'sAntonio Cirino Award.
Mark Shasha's work has been seen in more than 70 exhibitions in museums and galleries nationwide including the venerable Guild of Boston Artists, Lyman Allyn Museum of Art, Storyopolis in Hollywood, and the historic Society of Illustrators in New York City. His work has shared space with artists as diverse as Christo, Harry Vincent, Jeff Koons, and Emile Gruppe.
Mark is an elected member of The Guild of Boston Artists, The Copley Society and North Shore Arts Association and other institutions. He has won numerous awards for his landscape and figurative painting including The Alden Bryan Memorial Award for Excellence in Landscape Painting which was awarded to Shasha twice in one year.
Shasha also appears on stage as an actor, singer, guitar player or all of the above. Recent productions include Best of Broadway, The Miracle Worker, Twelve Angry Men and Willy Wonka.