Once and Again: Alterations by Susan Lenz
Once and Again: Alterations by Susan Lenz
Exhibition Proposal
Contact Information:
Susan Lenz
2123 Park Street
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 254-0842
susan@susanlenz.com
Brief description:
Once and Again: Alterations by Susan Lenz is an exhibit of vintage textiles and objects altered by the artist for contemporary expression. Included will be The Feminist To Do List and Sue's Environmental To Do List and Sue Goes to the Protest, three collections of Sun Bonnet Sue quilt blocks with hand embroidered calls-for-action, and The Clothesline, an installation of textiles onto which found fabric hand prints are stitched. This installation promotes energy conservation and other common sense reasons to line-dry textiles. Yet the hand prints also serves as a reminder of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when washing ones hands and avoiding social contact influenced day-to-day activities. Other altered works include CRAZY (In the Millennium Age), Second Marriage, My Bluegrass Roots, Oswald Home Laundry, collection of altered cross stitches, and Susan’s Found Object Mandala Series. In each piece, Lenz uses a familiar object in an unexpected way to voice current ideas and social concern. Her hands-on approach bids viewers to pause for reflection, whether the topic is their own precious antique possessions or their reliance on mechanical conveniences.
Availability:
This exhibit is currently available. Three other exhibitions are scheduled at this time. (August 16 – October 14, 2021 at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC; April 23 - July 16, 2022 at Artisan Gallery in Greenville, GA: and March 31 – May 13, 2023 at Piedmont Arts in Martinsville, VA.) Susan can conduct one-day workshops that focus on hand stitching vintage materials into new keepsakes. She can present opening and/or closing talks.
Brief artist bio:
Susan Lenz describes herself as the daughter of German immigrants, a soul mate of a wife, a failed mother, a frustrated homeowner, an involuntary business woman, an avid traveler, a custom picture framer, a college graduate, and the servant to an adorable cat. Yet, she is first and foremost, an artist. Using needle and thread for self-expression, Susan works within the scope of an overall theme and toward a final, mixed media installation. She stitches both by hand and machine but also indulges a passion for book arts and unique, 3D found art objects. Altering found photos is an obsession. In another life, Susan is convinced she was a kidnapper whose fixation with letters snipped from assorted, antique ephemera continued into her current life and studio practice.
Susan’s work has appeared in national publications, numerous juried exhibitions, and at fine craft shows including the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show and the Smithsonian Craft Show. She has been featured on art quilting television programs and on South Carolina Etv’s Palmetto Scene. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC and the McKissick Museum in South Carolina. Her solo installations have been mounted all over the country including the Mesa Contemporary Museum of Art and as far away as the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. Susan is represented by the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville.
References:
Dolly Patton, Executive Director of the Kershaw County Arts Council, 810 Lyttleton Street, Camden, SC 29020 (803) 425-7676 Dolly.Patton@fineartscenter.org
Chris Robinson, Associate Professor, Studio Art, University of South Carolina Beaufort, 801 Carteret St, Beaufort, SC 29902 843-521-3142 ROBINSCT@mailbox.sc.edu
Images with captions:
For a video of The Clothesline when installed outdoors at the Rensing Center outside Pickens, SC, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30SAn8O-gnM
The Feminist To Do List, 2019. 6' 10" x 6' x10". Vintage Sun Bonnet Sue quilt block, thread, 10" embroidery hoops. Click on image to enlarge.
Sue's Environmental To Do List. 70" x 126". 2020. Vintage quilt blocks altered with hand stitched call-for-action phrases. Each piece is mounted in a 14" wooden embroidery hoop.Click on image to enlarge.
Sue Goes to the Protest. 2021. Nineteen, vintage Sue Bonnet Sun blocks altered with miniature, hand-stitched protest signs. 49" x 100". Individual frames: 16 1/4" x 16 1/4". Click on image to enlarge.
Black Lives Matter. 2020. 22" x 46". Altered cross stitch profiles with affirmative phrases mounted in 10" wooden embroidery hoops.
Black Lives Matter, 2020. 22" x 46". Altered cross stitch profiles with affirmative phrases mounted in 10" wooden embroidery hoops. Click on image to enlarge.
Mandala XV. 30” x 30”. 2020. Found objects hand-stitched to a section of a vintage quilt. Click on image to enlarge.
There
are currently more than ninety found object mandalas ranging in size
from 38” x 38” to 14” x 14”. All have been stitched since
August 2020. Pricing is by size from $900 to $195. They debuted at
the 2021 Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, November 5 – 7,
2021 and will be available at the 2022 Smithsonian Craft Show, April
20 – 24, 2022. To see the entire series, please visit: https://foundobjectmandalasbysusanlenz.blogspot.com/
SUSAN LENZ
2123 Park Street - Columbia, SC 29201 (803) 254-0842
Education: BA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies from Ohio State University
Representation: Grovewood Gallery, Asheville, NC
Selected Art Residencies: Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Salt Flats, TX, 2021; Great Basin National Park, Baker, NV, 2020; Enos Park, Springfield, IL, 2020; Homestead National Monument, 2017; Hinge Arts, Fergus Falls, MN, summer 2016; PLAYA, Summer Lake, OR, December 2016 and October 2015; Anderson Center, Red Wing, MN, May 2015; Galesburg Civic Arts Center, August 2012; The Studios at Key West, March, 2012; Hot Springs National Park Artist Residency, 2011; MacNamara Foundation, 2008.
Selected Solo Shows:
2021 The Cocoon, Lake City, SC; Blues Chapel, Camden, SC; Last Words, Sumter, SC; The Big Day, Pickens, SC; The Clothesline, Guadalupe Mountain National Park, Salt Flats, TX.
2020 Anonymous Ancestors, Lander University, Greenwood, SC
2019 Anonymous Ancestors, Gadsden Museum of Art, Gadsden, AL
Last Words, Caldwell Arts Council, Lenoir NC
2018 Anonymous Ancestors, Eastern Shore Art Center, Fairhope, AL; Theatre Art Galleries, High Point, NC
Last Words, Greenville Center for Creative Arts, Greenville, SC
2017 Susan Lenz: In Stitches, The Grovewood Gallery, Asheville, NC
Anonymous Ancestors, The University of South Carolina-Upstate, Spartanburg, SC
In Stitches, Waterworks Visual Arts Center, Salisbury, NC
2016 Threads: Gathering My Thoughts, Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, Mesa, AZ
Anonymous Ancestors, The University of South Carolina-Beaufort, Beaufort, SC
Last Words, Georgia Agriculture Museum, Tifton, GA and Univ. of South Carolina-Aiken, Aiken, SC
2015 Last Words, Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum, Carrollton, GA
2014 Decision Portraits. Vision Gallery, Chandler, AZ; Univ. of South Carolina, Sumter, SC
2012 Decision Portraits. International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX
Last Words. Imperial Centre, Rocky Mount, NC.
2011 Personal Grounds. Waterworks Visual Arts Center, Salisbury, NC
Last Words. Vision Gallery, Chandler, AZ
2010 Personal Grounds. City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC
2009 Blues Chapel. Greater Denton Arts Council, Denton, TX
2008 Blues Chapel. Pickens County Museum, Pickens, SC; Edgefield Discovery Center, Edgefield, SC
2007 Stitched! Hyman Fine Arts Center, Francis Marion Univ., Florence, SC
2006 Markings. University of South Carolina-Aiken, Aiken, SC.
Blues Chapel. Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC
Selected Collections: The Textile Museum, Washington, DC; McKissick Museum, Columbia, SC; Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Salt Flats, TX; Great Basin National Park, Baker, NV; Hot Springs National Park, Hot Springs, AR; Homestead National Monument, NE; DP Professionals, Columbia, SC; City of North Charleston, SC; County Bank, Greenwood, SC; First Citizens Center, Columbia, SC; South Carolina Bank and Trust, Columbia, SC; Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, La Grange, GA; Farmington Museum, Farmington, NM.
Selected Group Exhibits since 2010:
2019 Color: Classic to Contemporary, Hudgens Center for the Arts, Duluth, GA. Juror’s award; Things that Matter, St. George Art Museum, St. George, UT; Child's Play, Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO; 30 Years of QSDS, The Dairy Barn Art Center, Athens, OH; 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial, Columbia, SC; Fusion Mid-Atlantic, Virginia Beach Art Center, Virginia Beach, VA; Celebrating America Craft, Sarratt Gallery at Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN; 3D Expressions, Gerald Ford Presidential Museum, Grand Rapids, MI; Freed Format: The Book Reconsidered, traveling book arts show throughout libraries in the northeast.
2018 Photographs and Memories Invitational, Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Museum, La Conner, WA; Transformers: Artistic Alchemy, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA; The Nature of Stitch, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA; Fiber National, Workhouse Art Center, Lorton, VA; Things That Matter, Vision Gallery, Chandler, AZ; Books Undone, Penn College, Williamsport, PA; Raw, University of Indiana, Kokomo, IN; Art Quilt Elements, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA; Guns: Loaded Conversations, a traveling SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibition; The Smithsonian Craft Show; The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.
2017 In Death, Wisconsin Museum of Quilt and Fiber Arts, Cedarburg, WI; 35th New Legacies Art Quilts, Fort Collins, CO; All Things Considered 9: Basketry in the 21st Century, National Basketry Association traveling exhibition; 2017 Form Not Function Art Quilts, Carnegie Center, Indiana; H2O!, Studio Art Quilt Association traveling exhibition; Ironic Designs, Gadsden Museum of Art, Gadsden, AL; The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show
2016 Between the Covers: Altered Books in Contemporary Art, Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA; Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora, The Textile Museum, Washington, DC; National Fiber 2016, Workhouse Art Center, Lorton, VA. The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.
2015 Natural Dye Showcase, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA; Intertwined: Contemporary Southeastern Fiber Art, Hudgens Center for the Arts, Duluth, GA; Art from the Ashes, Invitational Exhibition, Tapps Art Center, Columbia, SC; The Velocity of Textiles, Ernest G. Welch Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Crafting Civil (War) Conversations, McKissick Museum, Columbia, SC, purchase award; At the Edge of the Quilt: New Work, Bilston Craft Gallery, Bilston, West Midlands, UK; Maker, Making, Made, Invitational exhibition at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, UK; Southern Highlights, Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts, Melbourne, FL; Independent Spirits: Women Artists of South Carolina, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC.
2014 Fiber Fever, Foundry Art Center, St. Charles, MO; How We See Her, Foundry Art Center, St. Charles, MO; 26th Annual Decatur Fine Arts Exhibition, Decatur, GA; Mending: New Uses for Old Traditions, University of North Carolina-Wilmington, Wilmington, NC; 2014 Instructor Exhibition, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN; Fantastic Fibers, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY; Radical Elements, Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, Montgomery College, Silver Springs, MD.
2013 Quilt National, Athens, OH; South Carolina Biennial, 701 Center for the Contemporary Art, Columbia, SC; 34th Annual Contemporary Crafts, Mesa Art Center, Mesa, AZ; Text Messaging and Metaphors on Aging, Studio Art Quilt Associates’ international traveling exhibitions; National Fiber Directions, Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita, KS.
2012 33rd Annual Contemporary Crafts, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, AZ; Craft National, Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, KS; Art Quilt Lowell, The Brush Gallery, Lowell, MA; Meet the Designers, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; La Grange National XXVII, Chattahoochee Valley Museum, LaGrange, GA.
2011 Green: A Color and a Cause, The Textile Museum, Washington, DC; Re-Tread Thread, The Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN; Art Quilt Lowell, The Brush Gallery, Lowell, MA; National Juried Art Quilt Exhibition, Delaphaine Visual Arts Center, Frederick, MD; 9th Annual National Art Quilt invitational, Earlville Opera House Art Center, Earlville, NY; 14th International Open Exhibition, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL; Wearable Arts Awards International, Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada, First Place Recycling.
2010 ArtQuilt Element 2010. Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA; Fantastic Fibers, Yeiser Center, Paducah, KY; LaGrange XXVI Biennial, Chattahoochee Valley Museum, LaGrange, GA. Merit Award; Art Quilts XV: Needleplay, Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler, AZ; Wills Creek Survey, Allegany Arts Council, Cumberland, MD, First Place Sculpture.
posted by Susan Lenz @ 2:52 PM
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