Several years ago, painter Karen Kaapcke and pianist Alan Moverman had a chance encounter in a New York City park, connecting over their love for art. After several more run-ins over the years, the two artists began a collaborative journey that has yielded a truly unique experience for the viewer. With Moverman sensing music in Kaapcke’s paintings, he proposed combining their two mediums. This collaborative work, which has been a year in the making, will finally come to fruition on Saturday, November 4 at The Artist Study gallery and studio in Southampton.
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“Desorde” (Ligeti, Piano Etude No. 1, 1985), by Karen Kaapcke. |
Life’s Stages: A Collaboration with Painter Karen Kaapcke & Pianist Alan Moverman opens on Thursday, November 2 and will remain on view until Thursday, November 16. Both artists will come together from 3 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 4 for an Artist’s Talk, wherein they will discuss their work. The official opening reception and concert will be the following evening, Sunday, November 5, from 5 to 7 p.m.
“The best reason for collaborating is the hope that people will look at paintings and see them better, and people will listen to the music, and hear it better,” say Kaapcke and Moverman. “That the audience themselves might become partners in the collaboration, as everyone, artists and audience alike, push their boundaries even just a bit.” Both artists hope that the music and painting will complement one another. The pieces, which carry meanings individually, may open the viewer to another level of analysis and understanding when taken in together.
Kaapcke’s artwork captures her reaction to select compositions that capture the theme of ‘life stages.’ She describes listening to Beethoven’s final composition, Opus 111, and imagining a fully deaf Beethoven writing with the knowledge that it was likely to be his last piece. Moverman will play compositions by Bach, Gyorgy Ligeti, Robert Schumann, Beethoven, and Aaron Copland – which will pair with Kaapcke’s paintings.
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“Fantasy” (Aaron Copland, Piano Fantasy, 1955-57), by Karen Kaapcke. |
“As I visualized the space and the figuration I saw a main figure with tabs covering parts of her body as if she was censored, held back,” says Kaapcke of Beethoven’s piece. “Thinking and working in a cross-disciplinary way, allowing one realm to affect and noticeably inspire the other is akin to allowing the proximity one has as a parent to the operatic emotions of adolescence, for example, to enter into the work – as opposed to shutting the door to it.”
Kaapcke is a figurative painter from New York. She has a master’s degree in philosophy and studied art in both New York City and France. She has taught at Parsons School of Design, the Crosby Street Painting Studio, and currently holds private classes out of her studio. Moverman has been a piano soloist for the New York City Ballet since 2000. He has toured the United States and Europe with dance companies, performed in major concert halls, and also composes his own music. He earned a master’s degree from Juilliard and a doctorate from Stony Brook University.
The Artist Study is located at 25 Hampton Road in Southampton. For more information, please visit www.theartiststudy.com.
