Vera Klement (December 14, 1929 – October 20, 2023)[1] was an American artist, and Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago. She was a 1981 Guggenheim Fellow.[2]
Born Vera Klementovna Shapiro in Danzig, Klement graduated from Cooper Union in 1950. She taught at University of Chicago, from 1969 to 1995.[3]
In 1973, Klement was a founding member of Artemisia Gallery, one of the Midwest's first feminist Cooperative Galleries located in Chicago, Illinois.[4]
In 1987, she showed at the Renaissance Society.[5] She was 2003 visiting artist, at Goshen College,[6] and 2007 artist in residence at Indiana State University.[7]
Her work is in the collection of the state of Illinois,[8] The Kentucky Center for the Arts,[9] and the Krannert Art Museum.[10]
Klement lived in Chicago. She was married first to Israeli violinist Werner Torkanowsky and later to composer and conductor Ralph Shapey, but both marriages ended in divorce.[1]
Klement died on October 20, 2023, of complications from cancer and COVID-19.[1]