Kurt Kauper

Kurt Kauper is an artist known for creating paintings that incorporate both historical and fictional figures, arranging them in compositions that evoke a feeling of reversed or unconventional desire.  

Biography of Kurt Kauper

Kurt Kauper was born in 1966 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned his BFA from Boston University in 1988 and his MFA from UCLA in 1995.

He has been awarded grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. Presently, he holds the position of Art Professor at Queens College, New York.

His solo exhibitions include "Recent Paintings" at Marc Selwyn Fine Art in Los Angeles (2022); "Women" at Almine Rech in New York (2018); "New Paintings" at ACME. in Los Angeles (2015); "Barack and Michelle Obama" at Deitch Projects in New York (2009), among others.

Kurt Kauper's paintings have been showcased in various group exhibitions, including "Together in Time: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection" at The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2023); "Luncheon on the Grass" at Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles (2022); "Flesh" at  Newchild Gallery in Antwerp (2021); "Really?" at Miles McEnery Gallery in New York (2020), and many more.

His art can be found in the collections of renowned institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Oakland Museum of Art; the Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.

Kurt Kauper's Art Style

Kurt Kauper creates paintings that blend historical and imagined figures, skillfully arranging them in compositions that evoke a sense of unconventional desire. Marked by their inherent ambiguity and enigmatic otherness, the artist's works exhibit a hyperreal and highly detailed portrayal of space and form. By subverting the familiarity of cultural icons—some readily recognizable like actor Cary Grant or the Obamas, and others embodying archetypal roles such as athletes, opera divas, "men," and "women"—Kauper's paintings spring from a perspective he describes as "observing cultural norms from a longing yet estranged standpoint."

The precision of his realism reflects the level of expertise needed to conform to societal norms, which often appear as shared illusions and can be disconcerting when scrutinized closely. His figures, captured in a state of suspended animation, inhabit ambiguous settings with implied but unresolved narratives. These characters, with their inscrutable inner depths, emanate a naturalism that captivates viewers, evoking a spectrum of emotions from empathy to estrangement, or even detachment.