Collection: Kes Zapkus

Kes Zapkus (b. 1938, Lithuania) is an American painter whose work challenges conventional notions of pictorial representation in favor of immersive visual experiences rooted in structure, materiality, and emotional presence. Educated at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA, 1960) and Syracuse University (MFA, 1963), they received the Ryerson Foreign Travel Fellowship, which further broadened their artistic perspective.

Since 1959, the artist has pursued a vision of painting that departs from narrative and imagistic traditions, instead embracing abstract forms that evoke musical composition and experiential intensity. Their approach emphasizes non-linear associations and complex, layered fields of color, space, and movement—what the artist calls “semiotic fields”—that seek to mirror the simultaneity and multiplicity of contemporary life.

Rejecting both figuration and abstract imagism, the artist sees their work not as object or symbol, but as a maximalist expression of lived experience. Each painting is treated as a unique project with its own structural logic and emotional register, often evolving over years in a cyclical rhythm that shifts between structural classicism and painterly expressionism.

The titles of their works often point toward the content, which can be structural, social, or philosophical. While largely abstract, the artist briefly incorporated imagery during a period of anti-war urgency, underscoring their commitment to art as a deeply human, responsive medium. They continue to assert the relevance of painting in a media-saturated world, positioning it as a space for extended looking, emotional resonance, and contemplative thought.