Vera Klement

Vera Klement (December 14, 1929 – October 20, 2023) was an American artist, and Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago. She was a 1981 Guggenheim Fellow.

Biography
Born Vera Klementovna Shapiro in Danzig, Klement graduated from Cooper Union in 1950. She taught at University of Chicago, from 1969 to 1995.

In 1973, Klement was a founding member of Artemisia Gallery, one of the Midwest's first feminist Cooperative Galleries located in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1987, she showed at the Renaissance Society. She was 2003 visiting artist, at Goshen College, and 2007 artist in residence at Indiana State University.

Her work is in the collection of the state of Illinois, The Kentucky Center for the Arts, and the Krannert Art Museum.

Personal life
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.

Klement died on October 20, 2023, of complications from cancer and COVID-19.