We are deeply saddened to hear today of the loss of a good friend and longtime Juxtapoz champion, Shawn Mary Vezinaw Hosner, co-owner of Los Angeles' Thinkspace Projects. She lost her long battle with breast cancer, and passed away surrounded by friends and family and her devoted husband, Andrew, on February 14, 2024 in Los Angeles. Today, we wanted to share a message from Andrew, about his wife, her legacy, Shawn's celebration of life and her impact on thousands of artists over the her lifetime. —Evan Pricco, Juxtapoz
Shawn Mary Vezinaw Hosner
3/11/66 to 2/14/24
I am absolutely shattered to share the news that Shawn Mary Vezinaw Hosner, my beautiful wife and co-owner of Thinkspace Projects, took her last breath at 10:21pm last evening (Wednesday, February 14), surrounded by her family and close friends after a 15 month battle with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer that had spread throughout her body. 57 years YOUNG. Gone too soon.
Wife. Soulmate. Best Friend. Partner. Daughter. Sister. Aunt. Gallery Mom. Dead Head. A close friend to thousands of people. The love of my life that I was lucky enough to have been with for 24 years and blessed to have been friends with for 31 years. She was my world, so many saying they can’t even picture me without her and vice versa. Two halves of the same seed.
From volunteering every Saturday during Covid alongside her Nourish LA friends, they worked together to provide food for families in need to giving up her free time every Monday and Tuesday of her busy schedule to drive all around LA volunteering for Meals on Wheels and brining food to homebound elderly people, most of whom she became very close with to volunteering once a week at our local animal shelter, Shawn was simply the kindest and most thoughtful person that I have ever had the pleasure to know. She was the best.
She was just about to learn the ukulele, just got tickets to the Dead at the Sphere in Vegas, we were to be at David Blaine last night in Vegas even… and she had SO much planned to still knock off her bucket list. I’ve got that list, and over the coming year I will be going through and doing as much of it as I can, knowing she will be there by my side the whole time. I’m going to be sure I am at her treasured niece's wedding this September in Italy. She had so badly wanted to make it over for that, it was her current goal. Her 58th birthday was less than a month away...
57 years is too young. I feel robbed and I know she did too, though she would have never told anyone that, she never wanted anyone to worry about her, it’s just who she was. Shawn confided much in me as we got closer to the inevitable. She always told me to not be sad and to remember all the good times. She was so worried about me, but I was constantly re-assuring her in her final moments that I was going to be ok and we would all work so hard to keep her memory burning until the end of our time. Her light shall never dim.
Moving forward, I will always pause and ask myself “What would Shawn do?”, as I know if I do this, I will become a better person and to me, that would be the best way to honor the memory of the most amazing person to ever enrich my life with their presence.
I know SO MANY of you loved her, I am so sorry to share this devastating news.
Hold on to those you love, so tightly. And remind them of this regularly. Give your friends their flowers NOW, before they’re gone… you never know who NEEDS to hear this, sometimes it can be life changing for a person to know how much they mean to you and if they've helped you and influenced you.
A ray of positive sunshine to the very end. I will never let her memory and influence fade. Goodbye my love, I will see you soon. Go play with all our fur babies that also left us too soon and say hi to your dad and grandparents and so many more that you’ve lost over the years.
It would mean a lot to me to have a record of your favorite memories of her and stories about her. If you have something you would like to share, please send an email to this address:
If you have photos you’d like to share with us, please e-maill us at the address mentioned above, and we can send you the link to upload your photos to.
There will be a CELEBRATION OF SHAWN’S LIFE next weekend on Saturday, February 24 from 2-6pm at our gallery, Thinkspace Projects. We will have a DJ spinning songs from the playlist that Shawn put together for her celebration, along with an art show I am putting together showcasing amazing bits of work Shawn made over the years and that I always tucked aside, a wall of amazing photographic memories all framed up by our family at Static Medium, all of our favorite commissions we put together alongside portraits of Shawn from Audrey Kawasaki, Brian M. Viveros and Natalia Fabia alongside all manner of ephemera from her amazing life working at Tower Sunet, Licorice Pizza, and Caroline Distribution to being a teen model to traveling the world following the Grateful Dead to all the good she did on the regular. We will also have an alter where friends and family can leave little mementos or notes to her. We’re trying to get a Grateful Dead cover band out, fingers crossed. We’ll have a release of white doves in her honor following a reading of one of her favorite songs. We will have a tattoo station where you can get your choice of Shawn’s well known tarantula tattoo, a Hello Kitty head, a Zoso symbol or a Dancing Bear, from two of her favorite band of all time, Led Zeppelin and The Grateful Dead. And of course there will be tacos and good times. Shawn didn’t want us to mourn her, but to honor her by coming together and sharing stories, rejoicing in her favorite songs and knowing that we’ve all gained a guardian angel, who’ll be up there kicking ass and taking names just like she did down here. Full details will be shared in coming days.
Shawn loved you all. Please light a candle tonight in her memory and keep our gallery family and her family and our fur babies who miss their mom so, in your thoughts over the coming weeks and months as we mourn the loss of one of most beautiful humans to ever walk this planet.
SHAWN FOREVER. —Andrew Hosner
