George Kaplan

George A. Kaplan ~ Artist’s Statement

As digital images proliferate –more than 30,000/minute uploaded to the internet by some accounts –are we just replicating what we see and not what we might see? I have long been drawn to abstraction, and in the 1970’s I started experimenting with the reduction of video images to their basics, isolating elements of form, color, and composition, operating in a visual space that was far from literal but still held meaning for the viewer. It was difficult, clumsy, and filled with technical problems.

The tools we have now make this child’s play, and over the last few years I have returned to experimenting as seen in my series Obscuring to Reveal. Beginning with natural scenes and by virtue of in-camera and post-exposure manipulation I try to to discover unseen but felt visual ideas and feelings—probing the deep structure of the image.

In the process of doing this my work becomes one of discovery-- seeing what lies beneath, behind and within by surrounding myself with an image while distilling/probing/peeling away. It is an active journey, a geological expedition into the visual genome searching for truths that lie beneath. Much like the trite statement of the sculptor discovering the form...

Johns Hopkins University, BA
Cornell University, Ph.D.
University of California (Berkeley & San Francisco), Post-doctoral

Recent Juried* and Gallery Shows

*Jadite Gallery/New York/Patterns & Shadows/April 3-14/2017/JUROR’S CHOICE
*Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival/Mill Valley, CA/September 2017
*ACCI Gallery/Art of Living Photography/Berkeley, CA/September 1-24 2017/GALLERY AWARD
*Emeryville Festival of the Arts/Emeryville, CA/October 2016
*Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival/Mill Valley, CA/October 2016
San Francisco Open Studios/Dickerman Prints/San Francisco, CA/October 31st-November 1st, 2015
Cliché Noe Gifts & Gallery/San Francisco, CA/November 2015
* 29th Emeryville Festival of the Arts/Emeryville, CA/October 3rd-25th, 2015
Mill Valley City Hall/Local Artists/Mill Valley, CA/October, 2015
* Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival/Mill Valley, CA/September 19th-20th, 2015
* Frank Bette Center for the Arts/Alameda, CA/Driven to Abstraction/February-March, 2015/STAFF AWARD
*Hud Gallery/Ventura, CA/Dab Art Hosts: 2014 International Juried Show/November-December, 2014
Institute for Integrative Health – Baltimore, MD/Obscuring to Reveal/September, 2014
*28th Emeryville Festival of the Arts/Emeryville, CA/October-November, 2014
*Gary Francis Gallery/Alameda, CA/September, 2014
*Tomate Café/Berkeley, CA/April, 2014
*27th Annual Emeryville Festival of...