Tori Karpenko

Tori Karpenko is a father and community builder who works in service of place-based healing and environmental stewardship. He graduated cum laude from art school in Iowa and studied painting in Florence, Italy. In 2001 he moved to the Methow Valley, where he continues to contribute to his community as a place-maker, teacher and ambassador for the arts. In 2015 he was awarded a GAP grant from Artist Trust in support of his first solo show at Traver Gallery, followed by an invitation to participate in his first museum exhibit, “The Wild Nearby” at the Burke Museum in 2016. In 2020 he received a fellowship from the McMillan Foundation, which allowed him to expand his practice to include larger sculptures and public art installations. In 2024, he was invited to install a public project at the Seattle Art Fair. For this project he transformed a 22’ tall fire salvaged western red cedar into a sculpture that reconciles with our collective losses while maintaining a delicate thread of hope for salvaging what we have left.

Karpenko continues to contribute to his community of fellow artists across the state through volunteer commitments like serving as a regional ambassador for Artist Trust and as a founding Board Member for Wheelhouse, a statewide trade association supporting the creative economy. For the last fourteen years he has worked as the Director of Campus Operations at TwispWorks, a rural economic revitalization project that has re-purposed a 6.4 former USFS complex into a hub for creative enterprise and community gathering space. In 2025, he is revisiting reverse painting on glass in his fifth solo show at Traver Gallery.