David Kassan

Raw, poignant and profoundly honest, David Jon Kassan’s work aesthetically captures humanity in its true form. As an artist, Kassan acts as an empathetic intermediary between the subject he portrays and the viewer. More than simply replicating his subjects Kassan seeks to understand them.

Artist Image

David Kassan is an American painter known for his psychologically resonant figurative work and his long-term commitment to painting as a form of witness and storytelling. He is the creator of Facing Survival, an ongoing series of life-size oil paintings of Holocaust Survivors, accompanied by a feature-length documentary film that preserves survivors’ testimonies alongside the painted portraits.
Kassan’s work has been presented in solo museum exhibitions at the USC Fisher Museum of Art (Los Angeles, California) and the Houston Holocaust Museum (Houston, Texas), and has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Portrait Gallery (London, United Kingdom) and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery(Washington, D.C.). His paintings are held in public and private collections worldwide.
His work has received significant press coverage, including features in the Los Angeles Times and The Times of London, recognizing both the technical rigor of his painting and the emotional depth of his subject matter. Kassan’s paintings often explore themes of memory, resilience, and identity, balancing formal realism with an empathetic, contemporary approach.
Kassan was shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award in 2014 in London. He has received numerous awards from the Portrait Society of America, including the William F. Draper Grand Prize and the People’s Choice Award in 2017.
Over the past two years, Kassan has expanded his practice into Western-themed work, focusing on the people and landscapes of the American Southwest. This body of work has met with strong commercial success, including sell-out exhibitions at the Far West Show at Arcadia Gallery, NYC in 2024 and at the Far West Show in Austin in 2025, where all eleven exhibited works were placed with collectors.
Originally based in New York City, Kassan now lives and works in New Mexico, where his studio practice continues to evolve alongside his ongoing figurative and documentary projects.

Raw, poignant and profoundly honest, David Jon Kassan’s work aesthetically captures humanity in its true form. As an artist, Kassan acts as an empathetic intermediary between the subject he portrays and the viewer. More than simply replicating his subjects Kassan seeks to understand them. He seeks to capture the essence of those he paints, imbuing them with their own voice. They communicate with the viewer interpersonally and we see them through our own eyes. Our gaze transcends the picture plane and permeates deep into the subject’s psyche. We are moved by Kassan’s depictions, captivated by powerfully expressive hands, pensive faces, and flesh that appears warm to touch. Kassan’s portraits pulsate with the lives of his sitters – the weighty streams-of-consciousness of past experiences, feeling and introspection.This is what reality means to Kassan – preserving the realness of nuanced emotion and expression emanating
from the people he paints. Kassan’s technical mastery of oil paint combined with adept draftsmanship enables him to fluently represent what he sees. This is evident in the stunning flesh tones Kassan achieves. Transparent layers of oil paint are built up, forming an intricate lattice of veins, blood and skin. Through this light enters and is reflected back, infusing the subject with veridical luminosity. We can also sense movement and life beneath the undulating creases and folds of clothing. It is the artist’s intent to control the medium of oil paint so that it is not part of the viewer to subject equation. Kassan facilitates an interface between subject and viewer with which he is conscious not to interfere. The technical aspect of his work is thus a means to an end; an end rooted in the viewer’s experience.We find inherent contradictions in Kassan’s work as it oscillates between representation and transformation, reality and abstraction.

List of awards and any other pertinent information
Awards & Recognitions
William F. Draper Grand Prize Award Winner and People’s Choice Award (2017), Portrait Society of America
The Gold Medal of Honor, Allied Artists of America, New York, NY
BP Portrait Award – (Third Prize), 2014, National Portrait Gallery, London BP Portrait Award – Shortlisted, 2015, National Portrait Gallery, London
The Outwin: American Portraiture Today – Exhibited Artist, 2014, Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC
Newington Cropsey Foundation 2003 Travel Prix de Rome, Hudson, NY Kenneth and Louise Norris Foundation Grant (2019, 2023, 2024, 2025)
The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, Toronto, Canada
Purchase Award – MEAN – European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, Spain Collectio Prize – Red Dot Exhibition/Concurs The Art Students League of New York Permanent
USC SHOAH Foundation/Fisher Museum of Art Artist in Residency, Los Angeles, CA
Museum and Gallery Solo Exhibitions
2024 Facing Survival, Houston Holocaust Museum, Houston, TX
2019 Facing Survival, USC Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Solitudes, Gallery Henoch, New York, NY
2012 Process, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2009 Introspections, Gallery Henoch, New York, NY
2005 Louise & Bernard Palitz Gallery, Lubin House, New York, NY
Recent Notable Museums Group Exhibitions
2026 “Photorealism in Focus”, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
2026 “Human Resonance: Portraits with Presence”, Citadelle Art Museum, Canadian, TX
2026 “Night of Artists”, Briscoe Western Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
2006 “La Luz de Taos – Gala”, The Couse/Sharp Historic Site, Taos, NM
2025 “POST SCHOLAM”, Syracuse University,