Loretta Ana Kaufman: A Curated Survey 1988-2018 on Exhibit February 7–April 3

From Krishna Adams, Director of Visual Arts, Craft, Media and Design –

“Nature and the natural world have always been the center of my work and are the sparks that start the process. When painting with acrylics, I explore the boundaries between abstraction and representation. I reduce the subjects to bold, simplified forms and create excitement, tension, and often lots of space on the canvases. When working with clay, I incorporate tears, rips, and other surface treatments to express the energies and rhythms of the life around us.” – Kaufman 

For nearly five decades, Nashville sculptor and painter, Kaufman, has and continues to work with wood, fiber, metal, clay, and paint. Originally from New York, Kaufman graduated from Palm Beach State College, studied at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale, and with noted ceramic artist Mohaczy-Matic in Pretoria, South Africa. She completed numerous residencies in the South Carolina Arts Commission Arts in Education Program, taught sculpture at the Greenville County Museum of Art School, and was a Visiting Artist at the University of South Carolina. 

Her work has been reviewed in journals, including the Boston Herald, Atlanta Art Papers, Charlotte Observer, Ceramics Monthly, and Highbrow Magazine, among others. In 2018 her oil painting was published in a book of poetry, Gate Posts with No Gate – The Leg Paint Project, which carries an endorsement from author and curator, Sean Hemingway. Some awards include first place in the Monarch Ceramic Competition in 1988 for her clay sculpture; the Cecile Adler Cliffer Memorial Cutting Edge Award in the 129th Annual National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) Members’ Exhibition in 2018 for her acrylic painting; and her clay sculpture received an honorable mention in NAWA’s 2019 exhibition Sculpture On & Off the Wall held in New York City. In 2017, she was presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award for her sustained involvement in visual arts. Her sculptures have been exhibited worldwide, including INDEX Dubai 2018 at the Dubai World Trade Center UAE. 

Kaufman’s work is in permanent collections at the Environmental Research Foundation in Washington, DC; San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, TX; Westpoint Stevens in New York, NY; Ensemble Musicale Chambre Orchestra in Johannesburg, South Africa; and Bank of America in London, England. Kaufman’s full biography is listed in Who’s Who in American Art, and Who’s Who in America.