Cali Caprow

Roll Up Project is pleased to present works on paper by Cali Caprow.

Also known as Ruth Caprow, Cali paints dynamic portraits and figures in states of introspection. Working primarily in black and white acrylic, Caprow paints onto pages of the New York Times sealed later in matte medium. The surface acts as a subtext, an indelible mark of culture and daily life, and adds a depth of field to the compositions. The figures she paints are poised, philosophical, and placid in the midst of splashy headlines and colorful images. Illuminated with coronas of white or gray paint, they seem to hover off the surface. Caprow calls her paintings meditations, an apt description given the intuitive and improvisational process that brings them to life.

The Harrison Street window’s installation, entitled Angels in Oakland, consists of paintings of skulls, hands, feet, portraits, and figures come together in a conversation about life and the bodies we inhabit. Master Meditation, Fiery Angel, and Sentry are placed at the center, flanked by Bearded Observer on the left and Watcher and Gaia Surrounded on the right.

In the windows on Third Street, Caprow displays a grouping entitled Bitch’s Benediction, a title inspired by the work Bitch’s Benediction: At the Model’s Request in the lower right window. The painting captures the past, present, and future of her family in its subject matter: Caprow’s young relative poses with a grandmother’s kiddish cup, holding it up as a toast to the generations past. As a family of feminists, the women have taken back the word “bitch”, represented here by the boldly colored collaged magazine cover.

Cali Caprow is a painter based in San Francisco. Her work has been displayed widely in exhibitions, most recently at the Gallery Rocking Horse, San Francisco. Caprow was a founding member of WAVE, a women’s gallery in St. Paul, Minnesota. She organized figure drawing sessions for 25 years in Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Atelier Lumiere in San Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyards. In 2017, Caprow began using the moniker “Cali” to represent her alliance with all people of California in the wake of the election. Repetition of the name acts as a reminder that individual citizens of California make choices and enact positive changes in our community.

To learn more about her work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram.