Su Su
Living in Pittsburgh, PA
ARTIST STATEMENT
Often referencing American pop culture and her Chinese background, Su Su’s work explores personal reminiscence, cultural anxiety, and societal deconstruction under globalization. Su Su’s view of global cultural distortion is reflected in the unconventional use of media and an experimental technique the artist has created of extruding oil paint via medical syringe onto and through a porous synthetic fabric. The technique creates warped topographies of imagery resurfaced on the other side of the “canvas.”
Inspired by Surrealism and Pop, Su Su creates dreamlike, fractured motifs with vibrant color schemes in her Extrusionpaintings; creating a frozen time-lapse that carries the weight of her own emotions and visual culture analysis, both historical and contemporary. Although she controls and calculates the movement of her hands while extruding, injecting, and brushing, when the paints are pushed through the mesh, she also embraces chance and the independent physical impulses of the materials. Much as Warhol was a master of using the silkscreen but also embraced the accidents inherent in the silkscreen process, Su Su accepts the limitations of control and embraces the artistic beauty of physical chaos.
Her new Extrusionpainting series illuminates how the mass media imagery of China and the United States is endlessly recycled and mixed, forced through a screen not unlike the extrusion process, until it becomes something new and unique - a jittery beautiful hybrid.
BIO
Born in Beijing, China, Susu began painting at the Central Academy of Arts & Design at the age of 12. In 2011, Susu received a full scholarship to attend graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama, where she completed her MFA in 2015. In the fall of 2017, Susu was honored to receive a nomination for Pittsburgh’s Emerging Artist of the Year Award. In the summer of 2018, Susu was nominated for the Eben Demarest Trust Award and also had her solo exhibition "Between the Lines" presented at Bunker Projects. Her paintings were featured in publications such as ARTPULSE Magazine (2018) and JUXTAPOZ (2018). Currently Susu makes paintings full-time and further develops her professional studio practice.
TEACHING
Guest Artist, Painting for Theatrical Designer, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Drama, Pittsburgh, 2019
Guest Artist, Painting for Theatrical Designer, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Drama, Pittsburgh, 2018
Guest Artist, Costume Rendering, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Drama, Pittsburgh, 2017
Guest Artist, Millinery II, Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, Pittsburgh, 2017
Guest Artist, Painting for Theatrical Designer, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Drama, Pittsburgh, 2016
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 Between the Lines, Bunker Projects, Pittsburgh, PA
2018 Allure, The School House, Homestead, PA
2017 A New Way of Walking, Martin Chen gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 Work on paper, Chautauqua Institution, NY
2019 Distilled, Pittsburgh Center for the Art, Pittsburgh, PA
2018 The End, FrameHouse & Jask Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2018 Cultivating a Safe Place, Gallery One, Pittsburgh, PA
2018 AAP New Member Exhibition, Pittsburgh, PA
2017 Garage Studio Gallery, Sewickley, PA
2015 Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, MFA Showcase, New York City, NY
2015 Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, MFA Showcase, Los Angeles, CA
PUBLICATIONS
Hadfield, Tim. “Su Su: Recent Painting.” ARTPULSE, 2018
AWARDS
2018 Eben Demarest Trust Award Nominee
2018 Pittsburgh Emerging Artist of the Year Nominee
2011-2015 Applied Internship Scholarship, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Drama
2010 National Scholarship, China
2009 National Scholarship for Encouragement, China
2008 First Prize Scholarship, China