NEW YORK, NY.- The Paula Cooper Gallery presents an exhibition of early works by Joel Shapiro. The exhibition will be on view at 521 West 21st Street through February 13 and will include a selection of sculpture from 1969 through 1979. Joel Shapiro began working in the late 1960s at a time when traditional notions of sculpture were being radically redefined by Minimalism and Conceptual Art. Shapiro’s first one-person shows, at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1970 and 1972 and at the Clocktower in 1972, included small, simplified wood or bronze sculptures of everyday objects such as shelves, ladders, houses, chairs and coffins. Despite their intimate scale, they have a powerful presence and challenge