Exalting the Doodle
March 2nd — April 26th
March 2 – April 26, 2025: Art Exhibit “Exalting the Doodle” featuring artwork by Vera Kaplan, Nansi T. Lent, and Joel Kaplan
Saturday March 7, 5-7pm: Join Us for Opening Reception. Meet the artists, view art, and enjoy nibbles and light refreshments.
EXALTING THE DOODLE explores the transformation of intuitive mark-making into intentional visual language. Featuring painting, drawing, and mixed-media works by Rhinebeck artists Vera Kaplan, Nansi T. Lent, and Joel Kaplan; the exhibition elevates the act of doodling from casual gesture to disciplined artistic inquiry.
Across their distinct practices, the artists share an interest in improvisation, repetition, and rhythm. What initially appears spontaneous reveals careful attention to process, material, and meaning.
Vera Kaplan describes her process as deeply intuitive, allowing unconscious impulses to guide her compositions. Nansi T. Lent approaches her work as visual automatic writing, translating inner dialogue into layered script-like forms. Joel Kaplan brings decades of improvisational practice in music and drawing to his mixed-media works, embracing gesture and entropy.
Together, the artists invite viewers to reconsider doodling not as distraction, but as a powerful form of focus, presence, and discovery.
Artwork is for sale and can be purchased directly through artist. Please contact Vera or Nansi for more information about the art exhibit or purchase details.
Nansi T. Lent – nansilent@gmail.com
Vera Kaplan – verakaplan@gmail.com
Artist Bios
Vera Kaplan studied art at the High School of Music & Art in New York City, languages and literature at City College of New York, and Library Science at Columbia University. After working as an art librarian, she returned to painting in the 1990s, studying with Wolf Kahn, Georg Hoffman, Juan Sanchez, Emily Mason, and Joanna Pousette-Dart. Her work is informed by music, travel, and global textile traditions. Kaplan lives and works in Rhinebeck, New York. Her paintings are held in private collections in the United States, Austria, France, Japan, and Israel.
Nansi T. Lent is a painter and photographer whose work explores illegible text and script-like gestures as expressions of inner dialogue and shared human experience. She holds a BA in Studio Art from Boston College and an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University. After an early exhibition career, she worked for many years producing corporate media while traveling extensively. Since 2012, Lent has exhibited widely throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond. She is a board member of the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum and is represented by BAU Gallery in Beacon, New York. She lives and works in Rhinebeck.
Joel Kaplan was born in Havana, Cuba, where early schooling emphasized penmanship using fountain pens, an influence that continues to inform his work. A self-taught artist, he has spent decades drawing in ink and watercolor and occasionally incorporating unconventional materials. His practice contrasts with his long career as a computer programmer, favoring gesture, improvisation, and entropy.
Nansi T. Lent – nansilent@gmail.com
Vera Kaplan – verakaplan@gmail.com
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