Suzanne Caporael, born in 1949 in the United States, is an accomplished painter renowned for her enigmatic imagery, which spans from refined representation to abstract color-field compositions. Her artistic inspiration stems from a meticulous and persistent study of the natural environment. Caporael is chiefly fascinated by the gathering and remembrance of personal encounters, as well as the cognitive processes involved in visual perception.
Drawing from diverse sources such as the chemical composition of water in estuaries near her studio in upstate New York and the landscapes encountered during extensive travels across the United States, Caporael continuously explores various facets of perception and memory in her artistic practice.
The artist embarks on each painting by creating collages assembled from a collection of color swatches amassed throughout her career. These collages serve as the foundation for her final compositions, characterized by a unique and finely nuanced color palette achieved through meticulous mixing of raw pigments in her studio. This process ensures an unparalleled precision of hue and value in her artworks.
Critics, such as Ken Johnson from the New York Times, have described Caporael's paintings as "a compelling blend of the aesthetic and the conceptual, possessing both sensuous lyricism and rigorous formalism."
Caporael earned both her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees from the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. Her works are prominently featured in numerous esteemed museum collections across the globe, including but not limited to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Portland Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Yale University Art Gallery. She currently resides and works in Stone Ridge, New York.