Susan Grace
Artist based in Lawrence, KS
ABOUT
Susan Grace is a figurative painter who lives and works in Lawrence, KS. Her work has been widely exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the U.S., including ARC Gallery, Chicago; Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences, GA; World Trade Center, New Orleans; Kirkpatrick Center Museum Complex, Oklahoma City; Wichita Art Museum, KS; Neville Public Museum, Green Bay, WI; The Kentucky Museum, Bowling Green; Riverside Art Museum, CA, Weinberger Fine Art, Kansas City; Reuben Saunders Gallery, Wichita; Manifest Creative Research Gallery, Cincinnati; and La Luz De Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles. She has received numerous awards for her work, and her paintings are in many private and public collections, including the Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, KS and The Art of Emprise Collection, Wichita, KS. Although she studied painting informally in Athens, Greece, her academic background is in
literature and theater, and she taught at universities in the U.S. and at The American College of Greece in Athens, Greece. While teaching, she always maintained a part-time studio practice until she left academics to be able to focus solely on painting. Her study of literature continues to inspire and influence her work.
ARTIST STATEMENT
In my oil paintings my primary interest throughout the years has been an exploration of the figure, in which I have moved freely between representation and abstraction, using fragmentation, layering, and complexity to create multiple possibilities for interpretation and experience. Although I tend to work in series, my treatment of the figure has varied widely. Employing a variety of approaches keeps me engaged and encourages me to explore new techniques and methods of expression. For each portrait, I try to capture a figure in some stage of transformation. Although I want the subject matter to be recognizable to some extent, I am employing techniques of distortion and camouflage while incorporating abstract elements to enrich images both formally and conceptually. For many years I taught literature and theater in universities in the U.S. and in Athens, Greece before I became a full-time painter. Because of this background, it is natural for me to want to create work that suggests a narrative, but it is always an open one. I see the figures in my paintings as participants in unfinished dramas in which they are continually evolving, exploring possibilities for metamorphosis, delighting in the fluidity of identity, and remaining indifferent to a final resolution.
Website: https://www.susangracestudio.com/
Instagram: @susangracestudio