Biography

Susan Grace is a contemporary figurative artist whose oil paintings have their basis in the human form, but each portrait captures a figure in flux.  Her work primarily focuses on the female figure and explores the various ways feminine identity can be expressed. In her portraits of women, organic forms, adornment, and masks are used to indicate psychological or spiritual states and to facilitate the creation of new personas. They both disguise and conceal as well as express a certain character and spirit.

Before she became a full-time painter, Grace taught at universities, and her academic background in English literature and theater informs her art practice. Using layering, fragmentation, and distortion, she creates space for multiple interpretations, gesturing toward a narrative that she ultimately leaves open. She sees the figures in her 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.

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; Manifest Creative Research Gallery, Cincinnati; La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles; and 33 Contemporary, Palm Beach, FL. Grace has been featured in multiple publications, including New Visionary Magazine; AQ Quarterly Catalog, Vol. 4: Celebration of Women and Non-Binary Artists in Contemporary Art by Create! Magazine; American Artist; New American Paintings (West) 2024; and 33PA (Poets Artists) Fall 2024.  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.

Gallery Representation:

33 Contemporary Gallery on Artsy (Palm Beach, FL)
https://www.33contemporary.com/

Weinberger Fine Art, Kansas City,
MO
http://www.weinbergerfineart.com/