Bio

Evangelos Courpas (b. 1960) grew up in Baltimore, Maryland in a diverse and artistic community in downtown Baltimore. One of his most important early influences was an apprenticeship with a woodworker in his neighborhood, John Alexander. In his teenage years, Courpas learned how to make greenwood chairs and other woodworking skills, as he assisted Alexander in his workshop. This attention to craft met with artistic vision when Courpas attended Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, studying photography and sculpture. After receiving his BA degree at Oberlin, Courpas moved to Brooklyn where he opened his own furniture business completing several commissioned projects for people in the New York City area. As time passed, Courpas’ urge to be more creative motivated him to apply to graduate school. Courpas attended New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and received an MFA in Electronic Integrated Arts in 2004, merging his background in craft, photography and sculpture to create printed digital architectural and sculptural spaces, and screen installation video projections. After briefly teaching art in higher education in upstate New York, Courpas moved with his partner and son, to upstate South Carolina, where the lure of working with wood returned. Using wood from neighbors’ fallen trees, Courpas began designing and building furniture and sculpture. His work has been exhibited at ArtFields in Lake City, SC; Materials: Hard + Soft, Greater Denton Arts Council, Denton, TX; and he has an upcoming solo exhibition at the Jerry Drown Wood Studio Gallery at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg,TN. Courpas is currently multi-tasking between working in his studio, tending to his vegetable garden and walking his beloved corgi in the Experimental Forest near where he lives in Central, South Carolina