Karen Kaapcke’s work, often referred to as “Contemporary Realism”, merges classical painting techniques with a distinctly contemporary perspective.  Karen often focuses on the individual figure in a kind of abstracted space, at times hinting at feminist, spiritual or historical ideas.  Recently, she has been exploring more narrative paintings where she is exploring figures in space, and various forms of space – including the space of the picture.   A painting or a drawing is, for Karen, a locus – a point – where ideas and sensation, the spiritual and the concrete, temporality and stasis, converge and yet never quite resolve – as is a human being.

Karen has taught for many years at Parsons School of Design, the Crosby Street Painting Studio, and currently offer workshops and private and group lessons out of her studio and in France.  She has won numerous painting and graphic awards, and is represented in many private collections.   Her work has been shown extensively across the country, and in museums such as The Butler Institute of American Art and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.   She maintains studios both in New York City and in rural France.