At a young age, Gosha was compelled to leave her home country of Poland, then part of the Communist bloc to live and paint in the United States, where freedom of expression was encouraged and respected. Her refugee immigration in 1981 and the beginning of her new life in North America — a stranger in a new land — forever shaped her vulnerability and empathy towards humanity’s yearning for a validation of an individual expression.
Gosha first came to painting as a biologist, a scientist observing nature. She was fascinated by growth and decay, life and death, wanting to understand when things began, how they changed, why they ended. She surrendered to books and microscopes until one day in the meadows she was so moved by the cool reds and the warm reds that she felt compelled to paint. It was the only way she felt she could understand what was in front of her. Through her art education at The Academy of Fine Arts in Poland and Austria, Parsons School Of Design in NYC Bfa 1985, Arts Student league, Mfa studies at the Maine college of Art, as well as through the thirteen years of her teaching art in a Waldorf High School and College, she realized that an abstract expression was the experiential science she was seeking, her way to examine the world and nature of her experience.
In August 2023 Gosha was a recipient of fully subsidized Boris Margo - Gelb residency in Cape Cod. She lived and painted for two weeks on the edge of the land, living in a one room beach shack without electricity or running water. Her paintings became her testimony to her experience of the land of the sand dunes of Provincetown, the constant heart beat of the ocean, the night before the sunrise.
In July 2022, she spend a month in self directed residency, painting in Bretagne, France, across the Atlantic in a remote place by the ocean, on the edge of the land called Finisterre, meaning “the end of the world”, dwelling in both the end, impermanence of living, and hopefulness in surviving, rebirth and a new beginning.
Gosha exhibited at Hopper House in Nyack, Equity Gallery, The Painting Center, Anthroposophical Society in NYC, Korekta Gallery in Warsaw Poland, Museum of Contemporary Art in Radom Poland, amongst many. Her paintings can be found in private collections in the United States, Italy, Poland, Germany, and are in the permanent collection in The Museum of Contemporary Art Elekrownia in Poland.
Gosha Karpowicz was born in Poland. Lives and works in New York City, United States
StatementThe abstract nature of my paintings is based in my desire to simplify what is perceivable, to leave only what is essential, believing that there is an archetypal ground where we all meet in our human experience. I see color, as a breath of life, pulsating between light and darkness, embracing both the familiar and the unknown
I find myself exploring landscape as an idea. I may choose to play off the perceptions of the visible fragments of nature, a mood of a place, reflecting on the inner landscape of the invisible, that is human nature, emotions, relationships, identity, believes.
Underlying my work is an expression of radical freedom. Growing up on the farmlands of communist Poland infused me with a yearning for freedom — individual, political and spiritual. I immigrated as a political refugee in 1981. My new life in America was a manifestation of that yearning, and imbued me with an empathy for the human desire for freedom in thinking, emotion and experience. Painting process is the closest I have ever experienced freedom within myself.
CvGosha Karpowicz was born in Poland
Lives and works in New York City, United States
Education
2000 Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, studied at MfA Studio Program
1985 Parsons School of Design, New York, NY BfA in Painting
1982 Art Students League, New York, NY
1980 Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria
1979 Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland
1980 Fine Arts studies with Janusz Petrykowski, Warsaw, Poland
Artist in Residence
2023 Outer Cape Artist Residency, Boris/Margo-Gelb dune shack, Provincetown, MA
2022 Keremma, Bretagne, France. self directed one month residency
2021 Only if We Wish to, curatorial residency, Equity Gallery, New York, NY
Artist Symposium
2018 Beauty in Geometric Abstraction, Radziejowice, Poland
2017 Light in Geometric Abstraction, Radziejowice, Poland
Solo Exhibitions
2023 Landscape of Meanings, Chashama, 675 Third Ave, New York, NY
2022 Color Between Light and Darkness, Anthroposophical Society, New York, NY
2021 Intervallum, West Wing online project room, Equity Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Women’s History Month, three women show, Interchurch Center, New York, NY
2018 Artist of the Month, Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center, Nyack, NY
2018 Encounters, Korekta Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2018 Piermont Library, Piermont, NY
2017 Open Horizontals, Art Cafe, Nyack, NY
2016 Klimat Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Gallery Sitka, Fitchburg, MA
2012 Piermont Library, Piermont, NY
2007 Valley Cottage Library, Valley Cottage, NY
2005 Piermont Library, Piermont, NY
2005 Suffern Library, Suffern, NY
1996 Kaaterskill Gallery, Columbia Greene Community College, Hudson, NY
1996 Finkelstein Gallery, Spring Valley, NY
1994 Sunbridge Institute, Chestnut Ridge, NY
1992 Anthroposophical Society, New York, NY
Selected group shows
2023 Mapping the Abstract, Pinkwater Gallery, Kingston, NY
2023 Still Art-fluent, virtual exhibit, Boston, MA
2023 Chemistry Creative, featured artist May issue 2023
2022 What Might Have Been, Robert Berry Gallery, New York, NY
2022 Indivisible Spectrum, The Painting Center, New York, NY
2022 Connection Concrete, The Syker Vorwerk, Bremen, Germany
2021 The Longevity of Art, International Exhibit, BWA, Katowice, Poland
2021 Invitational Members show, Equity Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Annual Members Invitational Juried Exhibition, Equity Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Spring Flash, online show on Artsy, Equity Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Painters from Poland, pop-up show, Monserrat Contemporary, New York, NY
2019 Slow Art, Village West Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2019 Beauty in Geometry, Museum of Contemporary Art Elektrownia, Radom, Poland
2018 Pushing Boundaries, juried online exhibition, Hamptons Art Hub, Hamptonsarthub.com
2018 Museum of Contemporary Art Elektrownia, Radom, Poland
2018 Beauty in Geometric Abstraction, Delfiny Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2018 National Juried Show, First Street Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Light in Geometric Abstraction, Delfiny Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2017 All Art+, Van Der Plas Gallery, New York, NY
2017 The Four Seasons, Village West Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2017 Gallery Sitka, Shirley, MA
2016 XVIII International Chopin Festival, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, New York, NY
2016 Juried Alumni Exhibit, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
2016 Home is Where, West Windsor Arts, Princeton, NJ
2016 TCI Long Island City, NY
2016 Clio Art Fair, New York, NY.
2015 Art is Everything, first prize, Dorma Design Center, New York, NY
2015 Piermont Library, Piermont, NY
2000 Art and Science, Experiential Institute, Saratoga Springs, NY
1997 Ossining Art Center, Ossining, NY_
1996 Benny Smith Gallery, Cold Springs, NY
Publications
2021 Language of Geometry Longevity of Art, art catalog, BWA Katowice, Poland
2019 Color Excursions, Hook Magazine, Nyack, NY
2018 Light in Geometric Abstraction, art catalog, Contemporary Art Museum in Radom, Poland
2017 Beauty in Geometric Abstraction, art catalog, Contemporary Museum in Radom, Poland
2016 Poszukiwanie Znaczenia ( Searching for Meaning ), Polish Daily News, New York, NY
Academia
1997 -2010 Green Meadow Waldorf High School Art Teacher, Chestnut Ridge, NY
2000 - 2010 Sunbridge College, visiting art faculty, Chestnut Ridge, NY
2005 -2009 Rudolf Steiner College, visiting art faculty, Fair Oaks, CA
1995 Rockland County Community College, guest art teacher, Suffern, NY
Private collectors
New York City NY, Denver CO, Italy, Poland, Germany
Museum permanent art collections
Museum of Contemporary Art Elektrownia, Radom, Poland
StateNew York
CountryUnited States
