Shanoor is an American neo-symbolic expresionist, fine artist, designer, creative director, photographer, CEO, Owner of Devarj Design Agency, Inc. and speaker who has been making art for five decades.
His artistic career began at the tender age of 16 in Beirut, Lebanon, where he lived until 1975 when, because of the Lebanese civil war, he migrated to the United States.
As a precocious sixteen-year-old, his work was exhibited in the Armenian Genocide Exhibition in Beirut. That year, his paintings were also accepted at the German Cultural Association for International Children’s exhibitions.
His work was later featured in the Children’s Museum of Armenia (1966), and in a group show at the Musée Sursok (1967). In 1969, Shanoor assisted in sculpting the official portrait bust of The Honorable Sami (Bay) Solh,
the Prime Minister of Lebanon, and in 1974, marking an important final achievement in Beirut just before moving to the US, Shanoor participated in a milestone group show at Galerie Contemporaine with Middle Eastern artists Rafic Charaf, Fateh Al Mudarress, and Juliana Séraphim.
He was educated in advertising design with a BFA at London’s Barking College and following Shanoor’s move to Chicago in 1975 he was educated at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He began a career in art direction, branding, and design for advertising agencies such as Leo Burnett, BBDO before eventually opening his own design firm in 1984. Alongside his fruitful career in design, Shanoor continued to develop his personal artistic practice.
Shanoor began experimenting with painting on a range of new materials, including large un-stretched canvases, shower curtains, and found paper, and held shows at various alternative and traditional art spaces and world wide tours including Spain, Greece, Berlin, Venice, Switzerland, NY, Miami, Amsterdam, Chicago, Boston, LA, SC, NC, IN and Missouri.
