biography and statement

bio

Spoon Popkin received her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Glasgow School of Art and the Chautauqua Institute for Performing Arts. Solo exhibitions include Goucher College (Baltimore, MD), The Lee Nagrin Workshop (NY, NY),  The Kunstlerhaus (Salzburg, Austria), RGB Gallery (NY, NY), The Garfield Artworks (Pittsburgh, PA) and the International Festival of Women in the Arts (Glasgow, Scotland). She has had residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and  the Kunstlerhaus in Salzburg, Austria and was a finalist for The Bellagio Center. She has received awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and the CityArts Individual Artist Award in Visual Arts. Her work has taken her to India, the UK, Panama, Mexico,Turkey, Greece and throughout Europe.

statement

Found photographs, slides, tapes, letters: the accumulated memories of a lifetime tossed aside, this is where I find inspiration. For me, the found object simultaneously possesses elements of mystery and familiarity. Snapshots of moments that are seemingly banal and everyday are revealed as intensely personal; a kiss is exposed, a smoke is shared, a pet is loved devotedly. It is this feeling of mystery that compels me to paint. Rainwater is a new element in my work. Collecting rain rather that using freely available tap water gives the wetting agent a feeling of being precious.  It has become my partner in the studio, acting as it pleases. When I leave, the rain continues blurring and staining, presenting me with something altogether new come the morning. I have come to embrace the unpredictability of water, giving up control to the spontaneous chemical reactions as spray paint hits water and salt.