Shakti Kroopkin

In Hinduism, Shakti represents primordial cosmic energy. The name, given to Shakti Kroopkin (she/they) 25 years ago by a dear friend, suits her well. A sense of underlying creative energy and musical rhythm animates her paintings, produced in oils or sumi ink.

Kroopkin grew up on Chicago’s South Side and graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998.

She still remembers the moment she fell in love with abstraction. As an art student, she was using a palette knife to paint a cityscape when her professor suggested she take a two-inch square of the image and enlarge it to make it the entire painting. Which, of course, instantly transformed it from representational to abstract—and swung open a door in Kroopkin’s mind. “It was one of those never-going-back moments. There was so much joy and curiosity in the sensation of wonder, letting the mind go and the eyes flow,” she says.

Following graduation, Kroopkin lived for three years in a Volkswagen van, traveling around the United States with the goal of shedding her South Side upbringing and experiencing “what life is really about.” She returned to Chicago and taught art in inner-city schools, and in 2005 settled in New Mexico, where the urban imagery of her past merged with inspiration from the Southwest’s vast landscape and sky.

Today the artist lives south of Santa Fe near Cerrillos with her son, Malachi, two dogs, and chickens. In December 2022 she opened Mad Contemporary Gallery and Art Center in nearby Madrid.

When Kroopkin sets out to make art, she lets her energy flow between spontaneous, feeling-led expression and a more intentional approach that taps her compositional knowledge. She often uses oil stick, ebony pencil, and etching as additive and subtractive tools. Increasingly drawn to multiple media and collaboration with other artists, she delights in exploring new creative paths. “There are no mistakes; there is only progress,” she says. “I just keep pushing through and asking questions and seeing what works.”