ABOUT SHAELI
Born and raised in Jackson, Wyoming, Shaeli Chapman is a contemporary artist painting a wilder sort of beautiful. Working primarily in acrylic, her abstract-realistic style explores the tension between rawness and refinement, instinct and restraint. Drawing inspiration from the landscapes, creatures, people, and culture of the American West and beyond, her body of work continues to evolve while maintaining a visual language distinctly her own.
Layers of palette-knife impasto, expressive brushwork, charcoal, and instinctive mark-making give her paintings their distinctive energy and simultaneous elegance. At the heart of Shaeli’s practice is a fascination with the marks that cannot quite be replicated: the spontaneous line, unexpected texture, and moments when control gives way to instinct.
Splitting her time between the Jackson Hole area and Southern California, Shaeli has exhibited throughout the West, with works held in private collections across the country. Her work has also been created in collaboration with and in support of brands and organizations including Alpyn Beauty, Rising M Cattle Co., Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Wild Horse Warriors of Sand Wash Basin, and the Special Operators Transition Foundation, Jackson Hole Therapeutic Riding, Slow Food in the Tetons, and the Betts Family Foundation. To date, her work has helped raise more than $40,000 for charitable causes.
Her practice extends beyond the studio through a concept she calls Ars Convivialis, which roughly translates to "the art of shared experience". At select gatherings, Shaeli creates an original work live while inviting guests to leave a brushstroke or mark of their own, which she incorporates into the finished painting. From philanthropic galas to private gatherings, each becomes both an original work of art and an artifact of the people, place, and energy that shaped it.