David Jon Kassan (born 1977 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is a contemporary American painter best known for his life-size realist portraits. The paintings combine figurative subjects with abstract backgrounds or “tromp l’oeil texture studies.” Of this dual representation strategy Kassan notes, “my effort to constantly learn to document reality with a naturalistic, representational painting technique allows for pieces to be inherent contradictions; paintings that are both real and abstract.” Kassan currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches painting classes and workshops at various institutions around the world.