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, 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 City and attended Swarthmore College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and studied painting with Harriet Shorr. Casper's background in painting and biology informs her art, combining creativity with scientific and environmental insight.
After graduating, Pamela Casper moved to Paris for two years. Casper painted independently and traveled across Europe and North Africa. Living and traveling abroad expanded her artistic perspective and worldview.
Casper returned to live in NYC in 1980 and has exhibited at notable institutions, including the American Watercolor Society, the Gramercy Arts Club, Exit Art, and the Mindener Museum in Minden, Germany. Her work has been shown at Swale House on Governors Island, NY; the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center; and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, NY. Solo exhibitions include Gallery Shirley in Geneva, Switzerland, and Wisner House at Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, NJ.
Pamela Casper participated in an artist residency at E_Merge at Earthdance, creating an interdisciplinary performance based on her "Frack Tornado" series, and completed a two-month residency at Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been reviewed in White Hot Magazine, Art Spiel, Creatrix Magazine, and the Tribune de Genève.
Recently, Casper's paintings of imagined landscapes featuring fungi, roots, and soil life have gained attention. They were featured in Ecoartspace publications "Embodied Forest," curated by Lilian Fraiji, and "Soils Turn 2025," curated by Alexandra Toland and Patricia Watts and published by Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Casper lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and continues to explore soil life through her paintings.
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
2026 Soil Shroud, curated by Patricia Watts, Swale House, GI, NY.
Solarpunk, curated by Leonardo Martinez, The Crow's Nest, Baltimore, MD.
Earth In The Balance, curated by Fran Beallor, Interchurch Center, NY, NY.
Unearthed-Rerooted, curated by Nicole Cooper, Great Hall Gallery, First Presbyterian Church, NY, NY.
2025 Into the Now, curated by New York Society of Women Artists, Interchurch Center, NY, NY. Earth Echoes, curated by Naomi Teppich, Narrowsburg Art Center, Narrowsburg, NY.
Our Frangile Moment, curated by Fran Beallor, Hudson Arts Alliance, NY, NY.
Reflections on Progress, curated by New York Society of Women Artists, Interchurch Center, NY, NY
Gardens On the Hill, curated by Jennifer Cornforth, Wisner House Gallery, Reeves-Reed Arboretum, Summit NJ
2024 Fearless Watercolors, Curated by Janet Morgan, BWAC Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Salon Des Refusés, Curated by Alicia Degener, BWAC Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Ecology of Freedom, Curated by Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, The Crows Nest, Baltimore, Maryland
Soil Dialogues – An Artist Collaborates with Soil, Curated by Patricia Watts, Centennial, and Congress of the International Union of Soil Science, Florence, Italy
2023 Respire, Curated by Jennifer McGregor, Bau Gallery, Beacon, NY
Art That Matters to the Planet – Interconnectivity, Curated by Maria Ferguson, Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown, NY
Re-Imagining Conservation, Curated by Mary Mattingly, Heather McMordie, and Margaret Boozer, Swale House, Governor’s Island, NY
2022 Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats, Curated by Sue Spaid, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
Evolution/Revolution, curated by Nitza Tufiño, Taller Boricua, Harlem, NY
2021 Causality, Curated by Kim Power, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY
Fragile Earth, Online exhibition, https://nyartistscircle.com/curated-shows/fragile-earth
2020 USPS Art Project, Organized by Christina Massey, Ely Center, CT, Dallas, TX
Primordial Soup, Juried by Cameron Ledy, Paradice Palace, Brooklyn, NY
Eco Consciousness, Juried by Eleanor Heartney, Ecoartspace, Fall online Exhibition and Catalogue
Il Paradiso: Imagining the Eternal, Curated by Peter Gynd, Margaret Krug, Peter Trippi, Jimmy Wright, Equity Gallery, NYC;
Utopia, Curated by Yiddish New York, Stanton Street Shul, LES, NY
2019 Environ, Curated by Kat Ryals, Paradice Palase, Brooklyn, NY
Sense of Ice, Curated by Priska Juschka and Robert Curcio, Lichtundfire, NYC
2018 Sculpture Surround, Curated by Tamara Saba, Cherry Branch Gallery, Cherry Valley NY
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
Truth, Curated by BRIC-Brooklyn Arts Media, Brooklyn, NY
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, NYC.
2014 Creative Climate Exhibition, Curated by Tara DePorte, The Human Impacts Association, Taipei Cultural Office, NYC
2013 Leerer - (“Emptiness”), Sculpture and drawing Installation Curated by Marion Tutter, Mindener Museum, Minden Germany
2011 Art and Activism, Exit Art, New York N
1997 American Watercolor Society, Salmagundi Club, NYC; Group Show
1996 The List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
1989 The Pastel Society, Gramercy Arts Club, NYC: Group Show
1978 Les Americains Maintenants, Curated by Pamela Casper, Francoise Carel Gallery, Paris, France
Publications, Journals, and Blogs
2026 Soil Turns: A Field Guide to Artistic Earthly Engagements, published by Ecoartspace and Bauhaus Universitat, Weimar, GE
2023 Earth Keepers Handbook, Published by Ecoartspace
2021 Embodied Forests Book, Published by Ecoartspace, https://ecoartspace.org/Embodied-Forest
2021 Earthscapes: Emerging to a Brighter World: Pamela Casper at Wisner House, Published by Artspiel, https://artspiel.org/earthscapes-emerging-to-a-brighter-world-pamela-
Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats by Ecoartspace, Published by https://artspiel.org/fragile-rainbow-traversing-habitats-by-ecoartspace/
Earthscapes: Emerging to a Brighter World by Pamela Casper, Published by Creatrix Magazine, https://creatrixmag.com/earthscapes-pamela-casper/
1987 Elle Saisit au Vol les ‘Break Dancers’ New Yorkais, Published by Tribune de Geneve
Residencies/Awards and Honors
2012 NYFA Finalist, Basil Alkazzi Painting Grant
E-Merge Collaborative Residency Grant, Earth Dance for Living, MA
1993 Vermont Studio Center Residency, Studied painting with Neil Welliver, Yvonne Jacquette, and Nancy Mitchnick, Johnson, VT
1989 Pastel Society of America, Award for Excellence, Gramercy Arts Club, NY
Education and Study
2024 Scott Sutton, Studied foraging and processing natural pigments, Taos, NM
2010 Barbara Nechis, Studied Watercolor, Greenville, NY
2004 Mary White, Studied Watercolor, Charleston, SC
1987 Robert Kulick, Studied oil painting, NYC
1985 FIT Surface Design, Studied surface design, NYC
1984 Studio School, Studied drawing, NYC.
1982 Cheryl Pelavin Workshop studied etching, New York, NY
1976 Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA - BA, Psychology, Painting, studied with Harriet Shorr
1972 La Guardia High School for Music and Art, NYC
Affiliations and Registries
New York Society of Women Artists
Ecoartspace
New York Artists Circle
Castskill Art Space