Karen Kopf, “D.C al Fine”
and
Jessica Tefft, “Peaceable Kingdom”
Exhibit Dates: May 28 – July 1, 2023
Gallery Hop: Friday, June 2, 7-9 pm
Art Crush and Artists’ Reception: Friday, June 16, 7-9 pm
Karen Kopf is inspired by jazz, classical, and rock music, merged with the natural world to create a sensory experience rather than a narrative one. Sketching the natural forms in the world, she then composes the painting by overlapping individual forms to create more forms within the whole. The result is a web of conflicting energies with many intricate textures.
“Leaves” and “Coltrane’s Crescent” by Karen Kopf
Gold, silver and copper leafing is used liberally throughout the works. The overall impression of the paintings is a tactile and luminous interpretation of the energy within forms in nature.
After studying painting in Austria for a year, Karen Kopf established a studio in Marbella, Spain on the Costa del Sol. Five years under the bright Spanish sun added an intensity to the colors of her palette and a wide range of experiences and exhibitions to her career as a professional artist. Her works from this period are in collections all over the world.
Upon returning to the U.S., she painted in upstate New York, where she was resident director of the Guy Park State Historic Site. Eventually she moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she earned a master’s degree from Salem College and worked for twenty years as a teacher while she and her husband raised two sons. She currently exhibits at Artworks Gallery in Winston-Salem.
A framed print of the “Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks hung in Jessica Tefft’s living room when she was growing up. The lion’s eyes appeared to watch over her. Later, she realized Hicks’ painting was a visual sermon promoting spiritual and earthly harmony. In addition to being a painter, Hicks was a Quaker minister, and his works were based on Isaiah 11:6-9: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”
“Madonna” and “Peaceable Kingdom” by Jessica Tefft
When Tefft created this new body of work, she thought about how the Peaceable Kingdom would look today in our gun-crazed country. These works express her thinking on how the things we hold most beautiful are also the most targeted.
Jessica Tefft is an artist and professional photographer based in Winston-Salem. She believes art offers her the language to explore themes of trauma and healing. She also sees art as a lens through which to interpret current events. She worked as a photojournalist in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere and has exhibited and won numerous awards for her work. Photojournalism took her from Cuba to the Alaskan wilderness, and then the presidential campaign trail. She assembled and edited an entry for coverage of the D.C. sniper that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She graduated from Wake Forest University with a degree in studio art and is currently working toward a master’s in public administration. She is the founder and executive director of The Art SHAC, a creative reuse nonprofit providing affordable art supplies to her community.
This exhibition is free and open to the public.