Artist Statement

I am a visual artist who paints in watercolor and oil, and I work three-dimensionally with wire and found materials. I always intend to capture nature's beauty and hidden transformational forces while concomitantly connecting to global issues menacing ecological sustainability.

My current painting series is informed by the hidden world of soil, initiated by observations of exposed tree roots along the Umpqua River in Oregon twelve years ago. This investigation continues today on trips to the upstate NY countryside and reading about the interconnections between fungi and tree roots. Discovering this entangled underground network has expanded my way of thinking and creating.


I rely on intuition, spontaneity, and imagination to reveal a world not easily observed. This painting process connects me with an inner vision transcending my training in nineteenth-century landscape schools. Often, I arrive at a composition by improvising with the fluidity of paint, combining dripping, and tilting the work surface and layering bold brushwork and fine figurative detail. I build illuminated pictorial spaces in vivid colors, expressing my love of color and this world's inherent energy. I place tiny eccentric microbial structures and subterranean organisms to flourish within these spaces. Referencing insects, animals, and microscopic patterns invokes nature's diversity and combines imagination with science. Roots and mycelium networks weave their way down from the top of the painting, resembling nerves and neurons that subconsciously appear to be reaching out. This visionary landscape challenges our perception of the underground as lifeless and fuses the seen with the unseen.


My sculpted works with wire and found materials express the essence of birds, insects, and nests. Engaging with themes of multispecies extinction, their austerity and neutral palette are ghost-like and represent an uncertain future of shrinking habitats.


In revealing these rarely seen primordial and interconnected places, I aim to inspire awareness and emotional connection to the need for conservation below and above ground. In addition, I hope to expand my practice to include collaboration with research scientists and conservation groups.


Biography

Pamela Casper was born and raised in New York, NY. Casper received her BA at Swarthmore College and studied painting with Harriet Shorr. After graduation Casper moved to Paris for two years, traveling and independently studying painting. Casper returned to the States, studying painting with Robert Kulick, Mary Whyte and Barbara Nechis. Pamela Casper supported her fine art practice creating original designs for fashion designer Nicole Miller, and illustrations for Gourmet and Bon Appetit Magazines. Casper’s artwork evolved to reflect her passion for nature and the environment. Casper has had exhibitions at notable institutions such as The American Watercolor Society (NYC), Exit Art (NYC), Governor’s Island (NYC), Mindener Museum (Minden, Germany) and Artists Equity, (NYC). In the 2020 Casper’s work was selected by curator Eleanor Heartney for the Ecoartspace catalog and in 2021 selected by curator Lilian Fraiji for the book Embodied Forest. Pamela Casper was a finalist for the NYFA Basil Alkassi Painting Award. Casper completed residencies at E_Merge at Earthdance for Living (Plainfield, MA) and The Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT). Casper had a solo show at Gallery Shirley (Geneva, Switzerland) and in 2021, a solo show at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum, (Summit, NJ). In June 2023 Casper will exhibit at the Roger Tory Peter institute and Swale House on Governors Island, curated by Mary Mattingly. Pamela Casper lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Solo Exhibitions

2021 Earthscapes: Emerging to a Brighter World, Wisner House Gallery, Reeves-Reed Arboretum, Summit, NJ


2002 New England Landscapes, The Witt Gallery, Pawlett, VT


1987 Break-dancers, Gallery Shirley, Geneva, Switzerland


Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 Interconnected, curated by Maria Ferguson, Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown, NY


2023 Re-Imagining Conservation, curated by Mary Mattingly, Heather McMordie, and Margaret Boozer, Swale House, Governor’s Island, NY


2023 60 Together, 100 Strong, New York Society of Women Artists, Queens College Art Center, Queens, NY


2022 Art Fair 14C, curated by Robinson Holloway, Jersey City, NJ


2022 Remains, online curated by Flatfile Gallery, NY


2022  Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats, curated by Sue Spaid, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY


2022 Evolution/Revolution, curated by Nitza Tufiño, Taller Boricua, Harlem, NY


2022 Lost and Found, Curated by New York Artists Circle, Carter Burden Gallery, New York, NY


2021 Causality, curated by Kim Power, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY


2021 Women On The Edge, Online show, Taller Boricua, New York, NY


2021 Fragile Earth, Online exhibition, https://nyartistscircle.com/curated-shows/fragile-earth


2020 Members Invitational, Juried by Shazzi Thomas, Melanie Vote, Peter Drake, Carter Radcliff, Ben F. Jones, Equity Gallery, New York, NY


2020 Primordial Soup, juried by Cameron Ledy, Paradice Palace, Brooklyn, NY


2020 Eco Consciousness, Juried by Eleanor Heartney, Ecoartspace, Fall online Exhibition and Catalogue


2020 Il Paradiso: Imagining the Eternal, Curated by Peter Gynd, Margaret Krug, Peter Trippi, Jimmy Wright, Equity Gallery, New York, NY


2020 Flatfile 8x8, Flatfile Gallery, curated by Schweizter Fine Art, NY, Online exhibition


2020 Utopia, curated by Yiddish New York, Stanton Street Shul, LES, NY


2019 Environ, curated by Kat Ryals, Paradice Palase, Brooklyn, NY


2019 Sense of Ice, curated by Priska Juschka and Robert Curcio, Lichtundfire, New York, NY


2018 Sculpture Surround, curated by Tamara Saba, Cherry Branch Gallery, Cherry Valley, NY


2018 Drawn From Nature, curated by Cheryl Hochberg, John James Audubon Center, Audubon, PA


2017 Garden of Earthly Delights, curated by Maddy Rosenberg, Central Booking, New York, NY


2017 Truth, Curated by BRIC-Brooklyn Arts Media, Brooklyn, NY


2017 Art As Sanctuary, Saint Peter’s Church, NY Society of Women Artists, New York, NY


2015 Speaking Volumes and Voids, Curated by Ann Stanner, The Sculptors Alliance, Governor’s Island, New York, NY


2014 Creative Climate Exhibition, Curated by Tara DePorte, The Human Impacts Association, Taipei Cultural Office, New York, NY


2013 Leerer - (‘Emptiness”), Sculpture and drawing Installation Curated by Marion Tutter, Mindener Museum, Minden Germany


2012 It’s a Small, Small World, curated by Massimiliano Gionni, Family Business Gallery, Chelsea New York, NY


2011 Art and Activism, Exit Art, New York, New York


1997 American Watercolor Society, Salmagundi Club, New York, NY


1996 The List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA


1995 Woodstock Gallery of Art, Woodstock, VT


1989 The Pastel Society, Gramercy Arts Club, New York, NY


1978 Les Americains Maintenants, Curated by Pamela Casper, Francoise Carel Gallery, Paris, France


Education and Study

2010 Mary White and Barbara Nechis, studied watercolor


1984  Studio School, Drawing, New York, NY


1983 FIT Surface Design, New York, NY


1976 Swarthmore College, BA, Painting, studied with Harriet Shorr


1972 La Guardia High School for Music and Art, New York, NY


Publications, Journals and Blogs

2023  Earth Keepers Handbook, published by Ecoartspace


2021 Embodied Forests, Book published by Ecoartspace, https://ecoartspace.org/Embodied-Forest


2021 Art Spiel, Creatrix, WOART Blog


2013 Tagasblat, Germany


1987 Tribune de Geneve, “Elle Saisit au Vol les ‘Break Dancers’ New Yorkais.”\


Affiliations and Registries


Eco Artspace 


The Artists Equity


New York Artists Circle


New York Society of Women Artists

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pamelacasper2@gmail.com