diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1209d20fe..52f3c6d66 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
   - Fixed differentiability of `wp.fem.PicQuadrature` w.r.t. positions and measures
 - Improve error messages for unsupported constructs
 - Update `wp.matmul()` CPU fallback to use dtype explicitly in `np.matmul()` call
+- Fix ShapeInstancer `__new__()` method (missing instance return and `*args` parameter)
 
 ## [1.2.2] - 2024-07-04
 
diff --git a/warp/render/render_opengl.py b/warp/render/render_opengl.py
index cc69c772d..969a64bf9 100644
--- a/warp/render/render_opengl.py
+++ b/warp/render/render_opengl.py
@@ -666,10 +666,11 @@ class ShapeInstancer:
         [3D point, 3D normal, UV texture coordinates]
     """
 
-    def __new__(cls):
+    def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
         instance = super(ShapeInstancer, cls).__new__(cls)
         instance.instance_transform_gl_buffer = None
         instance.vao = None
+        return instance
 
     def __init__(self, shape_shader, device):
         self.shape_shader = shape_shader