SUZANNE CAPORAEL: Proof

"Suzanne Caporael has been painting for decades in a way that reminds me of an extended journey from an outdoor field to a semiotic field, wherein one’s ability to ascertain meaning relies on a keen memory of the world of perceptual experience and an appreciation for the indoor theater of a painting’s presentation, both singly and in concert with neighboring paintings."

- Stephen Westfall in "Card Magic"

"Suzanne Caporael is a consummate colorist. The abstract canvases in Proof, her current series of works, are imbued with such subtle and varied hues that they strain my rather limited store of chromatic nomenclature. Her paintings navigate an in-between space, gesturing toward disembodied realms of mathematical or logical thinking—'proofs'—while compelling the viewer’s sensual engagement with her materials. In person, her works exert a remarkable presence, similar to a stage actor’s charisma. Yet the dramas her works enact—foldings, crossings, vibrations, levitations, all of these spatial operations played out within the confines of the canvas's two dimensions—are far from momentary. The painted surfaces, as softly seductive as human skin, have been built up layer by layer over time, revealing their secrets slowly. Whatever is going on in them keeps us looking."

- Leslie Camhi in "Proof"

"Meticulously plotted and fully realized, there is nothing tentative or provisional about Caporael’s paintings. Certainly, they offer evidence, or 'proof,' of their maker’s intense curiosity as she borrows categorical properties from other disciplines."

- Leslie Camhi in "Proof"

"All of Caporael's color planes appear to be flat and hovering ever so slightly out in front of the off-white ground plane. They have an even density in their flatness and tonality that gives them a peculiar body, with more solidity than a visibly brushy fill would impart. At the same time, Caporael's wiping technique leaves the faint tremor of a shadow at their edges."

- Stephen Westfall in "Card Magic"