Catherine Copeland - Gitana Rosa Gallery

Know the Artist

Catherine Copeland is compelled to make images that engage the process of visually communicating her inner promptings to the world. This drive to dig deep and then share has found a metaphor in what she calls “Parallel Narratives,” where two pictorial narratives must reconcile themselves within a whole image. Intensely subjective, her works migrate from the confessional into the public sphere, where they seek to reveal to the world something hidden, subversive, private, illicit or otherwise misfit for public consumption.

Throughout this process, Copeland’s training in modernist and contemporary painting, and her profound interest in spirituality and philosophy, demands that the finished product be beautiful and whole. This urge to communicate sometimes unwanted or deeply personal information combined with a drive to create beautiful paintings sets up an active dynamic that serves as a metaphor for life: At once ugly, cruel, terrifying and mysterious, life is also rational, whole, beautiful and growth-centered.

Catherine Copeland was born on Long Island and spent countless hours sailing small boats to destinations such as Fire Island, Block Island, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. She studied English Literature at Stony Brook University before moving to Brooklyn to study painting and drawing at The New York Studio School in Manhattan.

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