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Concerned with Phenomena of the Natural World

Suzanne Caporael was born in New York in 1949, she studied at the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of design in Los Angeles where she was awarded both a BFA and an MFA. Caporael is concerned with the phenomena of the natural world, with a particular focus on the relationships between elements such as the chemical makeup of water, melting ice, pigments and plant stem cells. Her work emerges from deep observation and research and from this she produces imagery that have been reduced right down to their abstracted elements in collage form. These collages are then reinterpreted as paintings rendered from mixing raw pigments in her studio in New York.

 

Caporael had her first show at thirty-five at the Newport Harbor Art Museum. She was awarded a National Endowment grant in Painting in 1986, and has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the San Francisco Art Institute. In 2009 she was a guest artist-in-residence at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.

View work within the collection

Untitled Suzanne Caporael

Untitled Suzanne Caporael

 

Memory, Imagination and Reconstruction

“My interest is in the hierarchical eye/brain mechanics- there are several wonderful books and articles on the subject, for example, those by Semir Zeki [a cognitive neurologist who teaches neuroesthetics at University of College London] and Alva Noë [a philosophy professor at University of California-Berkeley]- evolved into a wider view that included memory, imagination, and reconstruction as necessary parts of seeing.” – Suzanne Caporeal

“Suzanne Caporael’s abstract canvases are as painterly as any prompted by more lyrical impulses; in fact, you might say that if natural laws were to express themselves through paint, something akin to her work could result. “- Grace Glueck, Art In Review, Jan 30th 2003

 

Her work is represented in many major museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, among others..

 

 

Biography

 

  • Born in 1949 in Brooklyn, NY
  • Lives and works in Stanfordville, NY

Education

  • MFA, Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, CA, 1979
  • BFA, Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, CA, 1977

Solo Exhibitions

  • Peters Projects, Santa Fe, NM, 2014
  • “Enough is Plenty,” Ameringer | McEnery |Yohe, New York, NY, 2013
  • “Seeing Things,” Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe, New York, NY, 2012
  • “The Memory Store,” Ameringer| McEnery | Yohe, New York, NY , 2010
  • “Going,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2008
  • “Roadwork,” Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY, 2007
  • “Time,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006
  • “Reading Time,” Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY and St. Louis, MO, 2005
  • “Works on Paper,” Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM, 2005
  • “A Decade,” Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI, 2005
  • “Tide Waters,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2004
  • “Estuaries,” Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR, 2004
  • “Littoral Drift,” Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY, 2003
  • “Recent Prints,” Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., 2003
  • “Turnagain Arm and Other Cold Places,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2001
  • “Melt: New Paintings,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2000
  • “Studies for Melt,” Karen McCready Fine Art,” New York, NY, 1999
  • “The Elements of Pigment,” The Lemberg Gallery, Birmingham, MI; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL; and Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1998
  • “Recent Paintings,” In Khan Gallery, New York, NY, 1997
  • “Suzanne Caporael,” SOMA Gallery, La Jolla, CA, 1997
  • “The Five Kingdoms and The Periodic Table of Elements,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL; Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1996
  • “Paintings, from the Series Inside Trees and Living on Permafrost: Black Spruce,” Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1994
  • “Inside Trees,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1993
  • “Second Nature,” Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1992
  • “Suzanne Caporael,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1991
  • Paintings and Works on Paper,” Richard Green Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 1991
  • “New Work,” Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, 1991
  • “Recent Paintings,” John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1989
  • “New Paintings,” Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, 1989
  • “New Work,” Richard Gray Gallery/Superior Street, Chicago, IL, 1988
  • “Recent Work,” Harcus Gallery, Boston, MA; Krygier/Landau Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA, 1988
  • “Recent Paintings,” John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1987
  • “Recent Paintings,” Krygier/Landau Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA, 1986
  • “California Viewpoints,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA, 1986
  • “Suzanne Caporael,” Irit Krygier Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, 1985
  • “Summer 1985: Nine Artists” (nine one-person exhibitions), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, 1985
  • “Suzanne Caporael,” Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA, 1984

Group Exhibitions

  • “(Un)Natural Histories,” Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, 2011
  • International Exhibition of Visual Arts, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, 2010
  • “People and Places,” Atrium Gallery, St. Louis, MO, 2008
  • “New Prints: Spring 2008,” International Print Center New York, NY, 2008
  • “Less is More,” 511 Gallery, New York, NY, 2008
  • “Empty Nest: The Changing Face of Childhood in Art, 1880 to the Present,” Nathan A. Bernstein & Co, New York, NY, curated by Lowell Pettit, 2007
  • “Nine Decades of Los Angeles Art,” Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2006
  • “New Art New York: Reflections on the Human Condition,” Trierenberg Holding Inc., Traun, Austria, 2005
  • “Pressure Points,” The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, 2003
  • “Components,” Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR, 2003
  • “Linger,” Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY, 2002
    “Plotting: A Survey Exhibition of Artists’ Studies,” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2002
  • “On Language: Text and Beyond,” Center Galleries, Detroit, MI, 2001
  • “Identities: Contemporary Portraiture,” Palmer Gallery, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ, 2000
  • “Watch,” Bona Fide Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2000
  • “Ellsworth Kelly and Suzanne Caporael,” Graystone Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA, 2000
  • “Retrospective of the Collection of David Teplitzki,” Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO, 1999
  • “The Great Drawing Show,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1999
  • “A Quiet Storm: Painting in Abstraction,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1999
  • “Cleveland Collects: Contemporary Art,” Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1998
  • “Hands on Color,” Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA, 1998
  • “Between Reality and Abstraction,” NICA Gallery, Las Vegas, NV, 1996
  • “Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas,” Gerald Peters Gallery, New York,NY, 1996
  • “New Abstraction,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995
  • “45th Annual Academy Purchase Exhibition,” American Academy of Arts & Letters, New York, NY, 1993
  • “Sea Fever,” Transamerica Pyramid Center, San Francisco, CA, 1993
  • Inaugural Exhibition, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, 1992
  • “Selective Visions,” Transamerica Pyramid Center, San Francisco, CA, 1992
  • “Group Show,” Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA , 1991
  • “Individual Realities in the California Art Scene,” Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan, 1991
  • “Selections From the Peter Norton Collection,” Rand Corporation, Los Angeles, CA, 1991
  • “Presswork: The Art of Women Printmakers,” The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1991
  • Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1989
  • “Land,” ACA Art Gallery, New York, NY, 1988
  • Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1987
  • “Alumni Invitational,” Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, CA, 1987
  • “Avant-Garde in the Eighties,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, 1987
  • John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1987

 Collections

  • Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
  • Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
  • Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI
  • Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
  • Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
  • High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
  • Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH
  • Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
  • The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
  • Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
  • National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
  • Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
  • Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
  • Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
  • The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
  • University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
  • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
  • Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
  • Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
  • Wexford County Council, Wexford, Ireland

Awards

  • National Endowment for the Arts painting grant, 1986

 

Selected Press

  • Wei, Lilly, “Rod Penner and Suzanne Caporael.” ARTnews, February, 2014
  • “Suzanne Caporael: Real, and Caporael.” The New York Sun, March 2012
  • Artner, Alan, “Works’ beauty is in their simplicity and deceptiveness:Suzanne Caporael.” Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2008
  • Hawkins, Margaret, “Suzanne Caporael: Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago.”Artnews, September 2006
  • Bonetti, David, “Prints and paintings provide strong gallery shows.”St. Louis Dispatch, April 24, 2005
  • Goodbody, Bridget, L., “Suzanne Caporael: Reading Time.” TimeOutNew York, February 3-9, 2005
  • Glueck, Grace, “Suzanne Caporael: Reading Time.” The New YorkTimes, January 21, 2005
  • Cohen, David, “Suzanne Caproael: Reading Time.” The New York Sun,January 13, 2005
  • “Suzanne Caporael.” The New Yorker, February 3, 2003
  • “Suzanne Caporael: Littoral Drift.” The New York Times, January 31,2003
  • “Talent: Mellow Marshes.” New York Magazine, January 20-27, 2003
  • Artner, Alan, “Attached to ideas of ice.” Chicago Tribune, April 20, 2001
  • Caporael, Suzanne, “Working Proof.” Art on Paper, January-February,2001
  • Johnson, Ken, “Suzanne Caporael.” New York Times, January 14, 2000
  • “New Work by Suzanne Caporael” and “Photochemical monotypes by
  • Suzanne Caporael.” University of Wisconsin-Madison TandemPress, Spring 1999
  • Artner, Alan, “Suzanne Caporael Tries To Link Literature and Science toPainting.” Chicago Tribune, June 12, 1998
  • Dixon, Glen, Washington Sidewalk, October 23, 1998
  • Protzman, Ferdinand, “Colors At the Core; Suzanne Caporael Lays It onThick in ‘Pigment’.” Washington Post, October 15, 1998
  • Levin, Kim, “Suzanne Caporael.” Village Voice, May, 1997
  • Doll, Nancy, Suzanne Caporael. Co-published, Chicago, Illinois: RichardGray Gallery, 1996 and Los Angeles, California: Kohn TurnerGallery, 1996
  • Hodder, Monroe, “Inner Natures.” Visions, Summer, 1996, p.31, 1996
  • Baker, Kenneth, “Abstracts with a Hint of Nature.” San FranciscoChronicle, Saturday, April 16, 1996, p. E1, 1996
  • Artner, Alan G., “Paintings Start with Tree Rings.” Chicago Tribune,March 4, 1993
  • “Suzanne Caporael.” New Art Examiner, May, 1993, pp. 37-38, 1993Baker, Kenneth, “Suzanne Caporael at the Wirtz Gallery.” San FranciscoChronicle, May 26, 1992
  • DeEtte, Christy, “Suzanne Caporael.” Art of California, vol. 5, iss. 1, p.55, 1992
  • Caporael, Suzanne, “An Artist’s Forum of Ad Reinhardt.” ArtspaceMagazine, January – April, 1992
  • “West Coast Art at the End of This Century.” Bijutso Techno, July, 1991.
  • “L.A. in Review.” ArtsMagazine, Summer, 1991
  • Artner, Alan G., “Suzanne Caporael.” Chicago Tribune, February 8, 1991,p. 67, 1991
  • McKenna, Kristine, “In Dreams.” Los Angeles Times Calendar, p. 74, 1991
  • Hammond, Pamela, “Suzanne Caporael.” ARTnews, Summer, p. 159, 1991
  • Artner, Alan G., “The Art of Making Objects about Painting.” ChicagoTribune, May 5, sec. 5, p.17E, 1988
  • “Galleries – Santa Monica.” Los Angeles Times, September 16, part VI,p. 20, 1988
  • Temin, Christine, “Mystery and a Sock in the Eye from Caporael.” TheBoston Globe, December 1, p. 90, 1988
  • Baker, Kenneth, “Galleries.” San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 1987
  • Gerstler, Amy, “Suzanne Caporael.” Artforum, December 27, pp.129-130, 1987
  • Fox, Howard N., Avant-Garde in the Eighties. Los Angeles, California:Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987
  • Conrad, III, Barnaby, “Suzanne Caporael.” Horizon, January/ February, 1987
  • Bob, Paul, “Suzanne Caporael.” Esquire Magazine, July, 1986
  • Wohlfert-Wihlborg, Lee, “At Home: L.A. Art.” Town and Country, May, 1986
  • Fox, Howard N., “California Viewpoints – Suzanne Caporael.” SantaBarbara, California: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1986
  • Baker, Kenneth, “Nine Artists on the Loose in Los Angeles.” San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 1985
  • Barnes, Lucinda, “Visions of Psychic Energy.” Artweek, January 19, 1985
  • Clothier, Peter, “Suzanne Caporael at Irit Krygier.” L.A. Weekly,November 14, 1985
  • Knight, Christopher, “Something for Everyone Group Exhibit at MOCA.”Los Angeles Herald Examiner, June 26, 1985
  • McKenna, Kristine, “The Art Galleries.” Los Angeles Times, November 15, 1985
  • Muchnic, Suzanne, “Caporael Mysteries at Newport.” Los Angeles Times,January 16, 1985
  • Muchnic, Suzanne, “Outside-In tour of L.A. in ‘Summer 1985: 9 Artists’.” Los Angeles Times, June 22,1985
  • Hicks, Emily, “Suzanne Caporael.” The Contemporary, Museum ofContemporary Art, Los Angeles, Summer, p. 3, 1985
  • Brown, Julia and Jacqueline Crist, Summer 1985. Museum ofContemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, 1985
  • Muchnic, Suzanne, “First Slate of Summer 1985 at MOCA.” Los AngelesTimes, July 2, 1984
  • “Paintings by Suzanne Caporael at Newport Harbor Art Museum.” L.A.Weekly, January 18, 1984
  • Plagens, Peter, L.A. Weekly. August 9, 1984
  • Heller, Tom, “Suzanne Caporael.” Newport Harbor Art Museum, NewportBeach, California, pp. 3-21, 1984

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