2012 Catalogue Archive

Artist Suzanne Caporael is an ardent roadtripper, having traveled over 30,000 miles in America in her lifetime. In a recent series of work, she translates this vast range of experiences and places into abstract paintings. Many of these works use the same pared down geometry and color palette, which offer a quiet impression, rather an image, of the place found in the title (Corpus Christi, in the case of this work). Through these simple, lyrical works, Caporael manages to distill an ever-complicated notion of place down to an impression, a gesture, or a glimmer. Caporael had her first show at 35, when then Director Paul Schimmel debuted her work at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (now the Orange County Museum of Art). She was awarded a National Endowment grant in Painting in 1986. Her work is represented in many major museum collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; the Milwaukee Art Museum; the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Yale University Art Gallery.