Artist Statement and Bio
Shana Kaplow’s artistic practice examines interconnected relationships between the body, the home, and the larger world. In her paintings, videos, and sculptures, she considers the tensions involved in everyday consumption, implicating a world that is intimate but also globally, environmentally, and economically bound together. Simultaneously concrete and mercurial, her works activate material sensations and contemplative spaces. Her current work is a consideration of energy production and consumption in the face of both personal and environmental loss. These works reference electric power lines, solar orbs, sunlight, crude oil, and the body, as well as abstracted gestures that emerge from an improvisational process. As the daughter of a physicist, Kaplow’s work is informed by transitory states of matter that suggest unstable conditions. Physical processes like dissolution, evaporation, and emission signal either the brink of collapse or the potential for transformation, which is another way to understand loss and hope.
In her book, Object Objects : Shana Kaplow, Kaplow presents her artistic practice as one might experience it through the intimacy of a studio visit. The volume features vividly printed images of finished works, behind-the-scenes process, installations, notes, sketches, experiments, a modular essay by New Orleans writer, Veronica Kavass, and a conversation between Kaplow and Minneapolis artist, Sarah Petersen. This publication was supported by an Artist’s Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Shana Kaplow has exhibited her work nationally and internationally at venues such as The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Tianjin Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, The Asheville Museum of Art, Dreamsong Gallery, The Soap Factory, Rosalux Gallery, 55 Mercer Gallery, Franklin Art Works, and Weinstein Gallery. She was awarded The Joan Mitchell Foundation Artists Grant for Painters and Sculptors, the McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship, The Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, and several Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants. She is a 2024 artist-in-residence at Yaddo and the Vashon Island Artist Residency, and has also been in residence at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, the Red Gate International Artist Residency (Beijing), the Vermont Studio Center, and the Grand Marais Artist Residency. Kaplow’s work was featured on Twin Cities Public Television’s MN Original. She holds an MFA from The Maryland Institute, College of Art, a BA from Connecticut College, and is a Professor Emeritus of 2D Media and Interdisciplinary Art at St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN. Shana is the founder of TITLE collective, which connects artists in Minneapolis/St. Paul who publish artist’s books and zines and the Art/Science/Energy Consortium, an interdisciplinary group of artists, scientists, environmental scientists, and energy activists. She is the Associate Director of Artists Development at PF Studios in Minneapolis. She lives and works in St. Paul, Minnesota.
