In a series of powerful works that blend digital manipulation, analog mark-making, and psychological intimacy, artist Susan Kaprov explores the most primal forces that shape our internal lives: anguish, desire, and self-perception.
Susan Kaprov blends analog mark-making with digital media to create emotionally charged, psychologically probing images of the human experience.
Through three evocative pieces, ANGUISH (CRI de COEUR), DESIRE, and Self-Portrait with Left Hand, Kaprov collapses the boundary between artificial and authentic, inviting us to confront our deepest instincts and identities in vivid, often unsettling detail.
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ANGUISH (CRI de COUER), Susan Kaprov, 2023, digital image with hand coloring on archival paper, 24 x 21 in. / 60.96 x 53.34 cm.
ANGUISH (CRI de COEUR) presents a hyper-realistic infant face, digitally sculpted, screaming, and bathed in saturated pinks and yellows, that is both alien and universally familiar. The figure does not exist in reality, yet the pain it expresses is unmistakably human. With this digital image hand-colored on archival paper, Kaprov captures a raw emotional state: a primal wail that symbolizes the universal yearning for justice, empathy, and a world less broken. The manipulated facial proportions and glowing aura intensify the image’s psychic charge, bridging synthetic technique and real-world suffering.
DESIRE, Susan Kaprov, 2021, mixed media, 24 x 32 in. / 60.96 x 81.28 cm.
In DESIRE, a woman rendered in smoky charcoal and pencil appears to float in a moment of unguarded ecstasy. Her closed eyes, open mouth, and the tender motion of her hand imply an overwhelming bodily and emotional sensation, yet no specific context is given. It is a portrait of longing that invites projections of memory, fantasy, or fear. The work balances traditional drawing with digital printing to achieve a layered effect, capturing the fluidity of feeling itself. Kaprov masterfully abstracts eroticism into a universal meditation on the volatility of craving.
Self-Portrait with Left Hand, Susan Kaprov, 2023, photomontage on archival paper mounted on panel, 16 x 12 in. / 40.64 x 30.48 cm.
Self-Portrait with Left Hand deconstructs identity through fragmentation. Using a flatbed scanner to distort and capture her own face and hand in multiple poses, Kaprov reassembles the pieces into a haunting photomontage. Fluorescent spectral hues wash over obscured features, generating a ghostly presence that both reveals and conceals the self. This is not a straightforward self-portrait, it’s an introspective diagram of a fractured psyche, caught between digital replication and emotional revelation.
Together, these works form a deeply psychological triptych of the human condition. From existential agony to unrelenting desire to fractured selfhood, Kaprov’s art challenges viewers to confront emotional truths that are often edited out of public life. With digital and analog media entwined, the works refuse passive viewing, they demand to be felt.
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Imprint, Susan Kaprov, 2022, digital photomontage with hand coloring on rag paper, 42 x 30 in. / 106.68 x 76.2 cm.
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