Shelley Kaplan is a painter who began her art career in New York City in the 1980s. She exhibited at the New Museum, Edward Thorp Gallery, and Peder Bonnier Gallery before taking time to raise her family and co-create a restaurant venture in New York City with her husband.
Her work has also appeared in national exhibitions including Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University, Blum-Helman Warehouse, the Phoenix Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum, Art Centers in Coral Gables, and Ted Greenwald Gallery. Today, she shows her work at Hudson Valley MOCA, LABspace, MAPSpace and Atlantic Gallery.
Publications including Newsweek Magazine, Art News, Arts, and Bomb Magazine have mentioned her work. Collectors Paul Schnell, Ed Downe and Charlotte Ford, and Patricia Hamilton have acquired her pieces, as has American Express for their corporate collection.
Kaplan studied Art History and Political Theory at New York University, where she earned her BA. and continued her art education at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, and the California College of the Arts in Oakland. She spent time studying in Florence, Italy.
After decades in New York City, Kaplan now lives and works in the Berkshires, where she continues to develop her practice.
Selected
Exhibitions
2026 “A Distich, a Rhyme, a Meeting, a Pair :Crit Lab Artists in Dialogue” Curated by Patricia Miranda and Jenn Cacciola
2026 Atlantic Gallery, Online Exhibition
2026 “Contretempo", Chiesa Sant’Antonio, Museo Camuno, Breno, Italy, curated by Patricia Miranda
2025 MapSpace PopUp, Port Chester, NY
2024 Crit Ecologies: Artists, Community, Criticality, Hudson Valley MOCA curated by Patricia Miranda and Dr. Livia Strauss
2021-24 LABspace Holiday Show, Hillsdale, NY
1988 "In Her Own Voice", McNeil Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, curated by Saul Ostrow
1986 "The Manor In The Landscape", Lorence Monk Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Saul Ostrow
1985 "Six Painters" curated by Jean Feinberg, Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
1984 "Modern Art" co-curated by John Yau and Ted Greenwald, Ted Greenwald Gallery, New York, NY
1984 "Bomb Magazine Benefit", Blum-Helman Warehouse, New York, NY
1983 "On View", The New Museum, New York, NY
1983 "Small Works", Peder Bonnier Gallery, New York, NY
1983 Group Exhibition, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY
1982/83 "New New York", Traveling show, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Fine Arts Gallery, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL; Metropolitan Museum Art , Coral Gables, FL (catalog)
1982 Group Exhibition, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY