Since his participation in the landmark exhibition Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials, held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in 1969, Shapiro sought to transcend the constraints of minimalism and introduced a more referential and psychologically direct mode of art-making. Though he is best known for reshaping the language of contemporary sculpture with cast bronze forms that blur the line between abstraction and figuration, he employed various methods and materials throughout his practice to explore sculpture’s ability to alter one’s sense of space and scale with works that attest to human resilience in the face of adversity.

Monumental public projects were also a major part of Shapiro’s practice. Among his over thirty commissions are large-scale works for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Consulate General, Guangzhou, China, the latter a collaboration with the The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, Washington, D.C. (FAPE). His work can also be found outside the Embassy of the United States of America, Ottawa, Canada (FAPE); Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Des Moines City Hall, Iowa; John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.; The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; Sculpture International Rotterdam; and in a major plaza in the city of Orléans, France. His work can be found in important public collections worldwide, including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among many others.