Artworks Gallery Presents

Karen Moran Kopf and Steve Mizel

“People, Places and Other Curiosities”

Exhibition Dates: May 7 – June 1, 2025

Artist’s Reception: Sunday, May 18, 2-4 pm, Gallery Talk at 2:30 pm.

Open for Art Crush: Friday, May 18, 7 – 9 pm

Karen Moran Kopf uses gold, silver and copper leaf with complicated textures to depict the inspirations from her life. Simple plant forms are transformed from weeds into intricate tapestry-like paintings. Couples are wrapped in mesmerising robes of gold, silver and copper leaf in windswept coastal settings. Flamenco dancers and toreadors swirl around raging bulls and silver trumpets inspired by a jazz album.

Kopf uses leafing to create ethereal beings against a stunning light blue violet sky. In contrast there is a desolated scene after war with the only winner the sky, which remains a beautiful blue.

After studying painting in Austria, Karen Moran Kopf established a studio in Marbella, Spain on the Costa del Sol. There the bright Spanish sun and range of experiences and exhibitions influenced her professional artist career.

Upon returning to the U,S, Kopf painted in upstate New York, and was resident director of Guy Park State Historic Site. She later moved to Winston-Salem where she earned a Master’s degree from Salem College. She worked for twenty years as a teacher while she and her husband raised two sons. She currently exhibits at Artworks Gallery in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Steve Mizel’s art is a reflection of the varied paths along which his life has taken. Although his professional career was in biomedical research and education, he always carved out significant time for artistic endeavors that span from art-making to creating a modern dance on the immune system.

Mizel’s artworks touch on themes of time, memory, and emotion, striving to make sure that each work has two fundamental characteristics: spirit and movement. Each work tells an interesting story, but not the entire story. If the work is successful, it engages the viewer—who then completes the story or invents their own as they respond in an ongoing nonverbal conversation with the work.

When working on a painting, Mizel enjoys the process of moving paint across the canvas or paper, pushing it forward, drawing it back, selectively removing it, mixing it such that each color embraces its neighboring colors. If things go well, colors appear to float above foundational forms. At the end, hopefully, the work is alive. Everything is in motion. Everything becomes possible.

Representative works may be seen at Mizelart.com.