SHAE BISHOP TURNS CERAMICS INTO COWBOY-INSPIRED WEARABLE ART

Shae Bishop turns ceramic clothing, cowboy boots and wearable sculptures into provocative, cowboy-inspired art.

Firstly, cowboy imagery has long symbolised freedom and grit. Shae Bishop reshapes that story through ceramic clothing and wearable sculptures. “I like playing dress-up.”

By mixing ceramic tiles with fabric, he creates cowboy boots, chaps, and hats that link history with personal identity. As a result, his work carries both tradition and a modern sense of ritual.

Material and identity

“Ceramic represented history: something hard and long-lasting, heavy but fragile. Textile represented the individual: flexible, soft, and personal,” Shae Bishop explains. When he combines the two, he explores how identity forms through what we wear and the stories objects hold.

Significantly, his cowboy boots and Western pieces blend frontier myth with self-expression. “An article of clothing has layers of meaning,” he says. Each work expects interaction, and the photography around it brings the narrative to life.

Crafting as Process Ritual

Bishop begins every piece with small tests. “I start by making samples, trying different shapes and ways of lacing them together,” he says. Each pair of ceramic boots or tile chaps takes months of glazing, firing, and assembly.

He also adjusts full-size patterns to match clay shrinkage. “Putting on one of my garments gives me an electrifying and uncanny feeling of transformation,” he says. Because of this, his work sits between object, garment, and performance.

Land, Wildlife and the Frontier

Nature guides much of his thinking. Bishop draws from landscapes, reptiles, and human-animal encounters. “I hope viewers imagine riding a horse in jingling tile chaps or walking through a forest looking for snakes,” he says.

Some cowboy hats reference taxidermy, while other pieces explore environmental fragility. Through these contrasts, his sculptures link myth, material, and ecology.

Studio Practice and Community

Bishop earned a BFA in Ceramics and Art History at the Kansas City Art Institute. He completed a two-year residency at Red Star Studios before joining Penland’s craft community and co-founding Treats Studios in Spruce Pine.

Moreover, Shae Bishop’s process is deliberate: sketches, small tile experiments, and hand-lacing. In fact, he even made a custom mannequin cast from his own body to assemble garments accurately. Nevertheless, each pair of cowboy boots or tile chaps carries the imprint of hours of labour and conceptual thought.

Performance and Presence

Indeed, many works are meant to be worn. Bishop often dons the Rhinestone Rattlesnakeboy Suit with cowboy boots, holding a snake, a live interaction with Western iconography and nature’s energy. Photographs place garments in swamps, plains, and open landscapes, turning the environment into a stage.

The Rhinestone Rattlesnakeboy Suit with ceramic boots is currently on display at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, until September 2026. Bishop’s cowboy-themed works ask audiences to step into history, identity, and performance rather than merely observe art.

Shae Bishop Cowboy Boots

Nevertheless, Shae Bishop’s wearable sculptures transform ceramics and textiles into a living narrative, ritual, and myth.

Furthermore, his work fuses Western mythology, personal identity, and ecological reflection. “Above all, I hope my work evokes some sense of connection,” he says, inviting audiences to feel story and history beneath the skin.

Learn more about his creations by visiting his website.

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