Dustin Shuler was born in 1948 in the borough of Wilkinsburg, an older first ring suburb of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

From 1968 through 1971 Shuler attended evening art classes at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now known as Carnegie Mellon University) while working full time in heavy industry for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. In 1971 he left Westinghouse to devote full time to his art career. In 1973 Shuler migrated to Southern California. Since 1975 he has had numerous one-person exhibitions and participated in many regional, national and international group exhibitions.

Dustin Shuler died of cancer May 4, 2010 in his California studio.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

1980  Performed “Death of an Era”, 20ft. steel nail (Tutankhamun) hoisted 100ft. high by crane and dropped to impale a 1959 Cadillac at California State University, Dominguez Hills, CA. (link)

1982  Created temporary installation, “Pinned Butterfly”, a Cessna 150 aircraft pinned to the American Hotel, a four story brick building, by a 20ft. steel nail.  Los Angeles, CA. (link)

1984  Created “Auto Pelt, 1964, 356CPorsche” and exhibited it on the exterior wall of the Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, CA. (link)

1989  Created and installed, “The Spindle” (eight cars impaled on a fifty foot tall spike) in the parking lot of Cermak Plaza shopping center in Berwyn, IL. (link)

1990  Created and installed, "The Sea Bee” (the bow of a ship, sinking into the asphalt of a shopping center parking lot) for Allendale Plaza, Coltsville, MA. (link)

1990 – 1991  Participated in “Status of Sculpture” (ten American artists) at Musee St. Pierre, Art Contemporain, Lyon France.  Exhibit travels to Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England.   Travels to Kunstmuseum, Hasselt, Belgium.  Exhibit finishes at Lowen Palace, Berlin, Germany

2000  First solo exhibit of “Dustin Shuler Targets Transportation” at Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA. (link)

2006  Solo exhibit of “The Rainforest: A Landscape in the Shower” (with live animals) at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Hollywood, CA (link)

2007  Created temporary installation, “Dance” (a circle dance of cars), for the 2007 – 2008 “Sarasota Season of Sculpture” Bay front exhibition. (link)