Trained in printmaking, Denise Kupferschmidt produces painting, drawing, sculpture, and prints in a minimal, geometric visual vocabulary that invokes early-20th-century Primitivism. In both figurative and abstract imagery and sculpture, Kupferschmidt alludes to forms of ancient spiritual or classical iconography, often depicting dancing figures that recall those of Henri Matisse, their bodies simplified by genderless, exaggerated limbs. “My work keeps becoming more reductive because I try to find the baselines that join a lot of human and cultural experiences,” she has said. Kupferschmidt often draws onto aged paper taken from books in order to create dialogue between the past and present. Her collection, “Motifs” (2012), includes black-and-white cement renderings of vase-like forms, drawings, and a black-and-white figurative mural. She is influenced by the work of Yayoi Kusama and Keith Haring, as well as Matisse.