Drie Chapek

Then Is Now

May 21 - June 27, 2026

Opening Reception: “First Thursday,” June 4, 6-8pm
Artist talk: “Saturday After,” June 6 at noon

We are pleased to announce our fourth one-person exhibition by Washington artist, Drie Chapek. In Then Is Now the artist continues her deeply personal approach to oil painting, inviting viewers to engage with the work on an emotional level. The artist explores both the body and the landscape in paintings of thick expressive oil paint built upon ethereal washes of color.

SHIMMER IN TIME, 2026, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

“I'm interested in the connection between body and environment. A figure being held by stone in one area moves into dissolving paint in another. The space around a head isn't empty air but consciousness made substance — churning, breathing, growing. These paintings are about the experience of being aware, of being embodied in a world.

The walls of our buildings seem to tell us we are controlled or organized whereas the natural world shows us our wild, the wild that we carry with us indoors. I'm painting what it FEELS like to be conscious and embodied, not what it means.”

–Drie Chapek

Work in exhibition