FREE ENERGY: Abstraction and Critique of Our Oil-Based Culture

Banner Image: Detail of Luminiferous, acrylic and gouache on canvas, 2026. Photo courtesy of the artist.

◼︎ ◼︎ ◼︎ ◼︎ ◼︎ 

Roy Kaplow [1932-1982] was a professor of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was working on a project called Solar Energy Converter since the late 1970s. The apparatus he developed used curved, circular mirrors to concentrate sunlight in order to convert it into energy, via a photovoltaic cell. 

A video projection on a hand blown glass mirror titled A World That Never Ends is the central work of the exhibit FREE ENERGY by Minnesota-based visual artist Shana Kaplow (Roy’s daughter), currently on view at the Johnson Gallery of Bethel University. The exhibit also showcases a series of six ink, acrylic, and gauche paintings on paper, along with eleven small paintings on canvas grouped as to evoke a constellation, and three large canvases. 

 

A World That Never Ends, video projection, hand blown glass mirror, wood table, 2026. Photo courtesy of the artist.

 

While Kaplow’s work in this exhibit stems from her father’s interests, the suggested transitory states of matter and visual instabilities in her images are all qualities of abstract painting and experimentation for Kaplow. Some of these qualities include forms, movement, spectrum, luminosity, goopiness and drippiness of paint, and flatness. Using reflections of power lines, oil derricks, and sunlight in a curved, circular mirror as a point of departure: 

“The resulting artworks challenge direct perception, suggesting celestial mechanics, electromagnetic fields, or astral watchers”.

At large, however, FREE ENERGY connects personal narrative with larger global questions such as survival in our industrialized world. For Kaplow, our world’s obsession with an oil-based economy and its extractive methods are the root of the severe environmental damage our planet faces.

Core critiques of oil-based culture (petroculture) range from environmental destruction, climate change, to authoritarian support and corporate influence. And while, “close to a third of electricity produced globally is now classified as ‘renewable,’ CO₂ emissions from the energy sector are at an all-time high" (The Petrocultures Research Group). 

In the grouping of the eleven small paintings, Kaplow arranges the canvases at different heights on the wall to represent the oil underground, the water table, the atmosphere, and finally sunlight. Too Sad is the small acrylic on canvas that starts this journey in the lower left corner of the wall. Quotient of Desire, an acrylic and gouache on canvas over panel, ends the narrative in the upper right corner depicting bright yellow flares bursting from the Sun’s surface. 

 

Too Sad, acrylic on canvas over panel, 2026.

 

Shana Kaplow ponting to Too Sad.

 

Quotient of Desire, acrylic and gouache on canvas over panel, 2026.

 

The irony in titles such as Too Sad is a way for Kaplow to nod at the romanticized or overly dramatic notion of our sometimes irrational over-reliance on oil. On its part, Quotient of Desire suggests the blending of a mathematical result with an intense human emotion, revealing a compelling juxtaposition akin to our complex dependence on energy. FREE ENERGY is an exhibit to immerse in visually and spatially, unpack, and convert into future action. 

A 2024 kinetic sculpture by Kaplow titled Apparatus for Grieving had incorporated a glass mirror that tracked the Sun’s position throughout the day. “I’m interested in how the sculpture alludes to a two-way transmission. I imagine it as both a light receiver and a Sisyphean searcher, simultaneously hopeful and questioning its futility” (Kaplow).

Kaplow’s innovative monograph, Object Objects : Shana Kaplow, was published in 2019, and is included in artist book collections nationally, including the Rosemary Furtak Artist Book Collection at Walker Art Center. She was awarded The Joan Mitchell Foundation Artists Grant for Painters and Sculptors, the McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship, The Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, and several Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants.◼︎ 

 

FREE ENERGY, Shana Kaplow is on view until December 11 at the Johnson Gallery of Bethel University in Saint Paul. The gallery is located on the 2nd level of the Clauson Center. The address is 3900 Bethel Drive, St. Paul, MN 55112. A reception with the artist will be held on Thursday, November 12th from 5 - 7pm in the Johnson Gallery. Follow Shana Kaplow on Instagram @s.kaplow and the Johnson Gallery at @bethelgalleries