David Kaplan was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. With supportive parents, Kaplan attended advanced art classes at a young age. In his early life he moved to Detroit and also lived for a time in New York. He started exhibiting in juried and invitational art shows in 1938. Upon returning to Cleveland he married the late Jeanne B. Kaplan and worked as a display artist until he went to serve in WWII. After the war Kaplan moved his two daughters, Debora and Charlotte, back to New York. While there he worked for many years as a head designer, retiring in 1980. Kaplan then returned to Cleveland and began concentrating on his artwork: sculpting, painting, drawing, and printmaking. His first show was in the May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Since then Kaplan exhibited in well over 55 museums and galleries, including the Butler Museum of American Art, the Canton Museum, the Beck Center for the Arts, Tulane University, the Jewish Community Center and the AAWR. Kaplan was a significant artist among the legendary group known as The Cleveland School of Art.