Sue Carlson, (b. 1956, Minneapolis) earned a BA in classical music from Cleveland Institute of Music/ Case Western Reserve University (1979) and an MFA in visual art from Cal-Arts (1982). Moving to New York City in 1982, Sue worked as a studio assistant for Elizabeth Murray and Lucio Pozzi. She has exhibited work in New York at Odetta Gallery, Rose Burlingham Fine Art, Gerber-Seid Fine Art, Van Brunt Gallery, Lindsey Brown Gallery, Berland-Hall Gallery, White Columns, as well as in galleries in San Francisco, San Antonio, Baltimore, and in Bologna, Sardinia and Florence in Italy. She has recently been an artist in residence in Florence, Italy, Reykjavik, Iceland and Börkö, in the Stockholm archipelago in Sweden.
“In painting, my aesthetic expression and structure is fundamentally musical. With repetition and permutation of “motifs”, subtle differences between permutations become expressive. Color reflects light, space, expansion. I create visual compositions, like musical scores, a language existing between music and painting. My paintings are not representational, nor are they pure notation, they are a reminder of the visual world we live in.
19th century nordic landscape painting depicts the sublime in light, sky, water. I have studied this, and also runic inscriptions and pictures on ancient stones in Scandinavia. I have observed and photographed the nordic sky during summer and winter. I use horizontal lines and circles as fundamental drawing elements, organizing an open painterly space without restricting the expansive feeling of a sky. I look for a new sense of the sublime, through ancient symbols, simple geometry, space and light.“
SUE CARLSON
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023 • Circles and Ellipses , Odetta Gallery @Space 776, New York City, curated by Ellen Hackl-Fagan
2023 • Exquisite Codes, Bla-Bla Projektraum, Berlin, Germany, with Odetta Digital, Hohenthal und Bergen
2023 • Illustrations for “Rökstenen och världens undergång” by Henrik Williams, Kaunitz-Olsson, 2021, study of a new translation of a 1200 year old runic text depicting Celtic riddles, Norse myth and cosmology. Exhibition @ Bjorkö-Konstnod Artist Residency, Sweden
2022 • “Rökstenen” exhibition @ SIM Artist Residency , Reykjavik, Iceland
2021• International Show, Tobian Gallery, Florence Italy
2020 • Linea in Andamento, (solo show) Chiasso Perduto, Florence, Italy, Exhibition of 27 works on paper with sound installations by Diana Restrepo and Luca Favaro
2016 • The Drama of Nordic Light (solo show) Svenska Kyrkan I New York
2010 • Longing for Falköping,(solo show), Svenska Kyrkan I New York, exhibition essay by Jennifer Riley
2009 • Still, Quiet, on the Wall, (solo show), Rose Burlingham Fine Art, New York, NY
2009 • Water Carefully, Galleria Neon, Bologna, Italy, Andrew Smaldone, curator
2008 • I’m Asking For The Sky, Sardegna Arte Fiera, Sardinia, Italy, Gordana Bezanov, curator
2007 • Dutch Barn Show, Rose Burlingham Fine Art, Clinton Corners,, NY
2005 • ArtMANGO Gallery, San Antonio, Texas
2004 • Seid Show, Gerber-Seid Fine Arts, New York, NY, Leslie Gerber-Seid, curator
2004 • Band of Abstraction, Van Brunt Gallery, New York, NY, Joe Fyfe, curator
2003 • Landscape at Wave Hill, Lindsey Brown Gallery, New York, NY
2002 • Sue Carlson: Double Horizon (solo show), Lindsey Brown Gallery, New York, NY, essay by Joe Fyfe
2001 • Sue Carlson: Fykerud Series (solo show), NeoImages, New York, NY
2000 • Substance, NeoImages Gallery, New York, NY
1999 • Sue Carlson: Healing Spaces (solo show), Arthur Ashe Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1999 • Size Matters, Gale Gates et al, Brooklyn, NY, Mike Weiss, curator
1994 • Artists Space, New York, NY
1993 • Multi-Media Survey”, BAUHOUSE, Baltimore, MD
1991 • Three Painters: Sue Carlson, Lawrence Connoly, Dik Liu, Berland-Hall Gallery, New York, NY
1987 • Sue Carlson: White Room, (solo show) White Columns, New York, NY, Bill Arning, curator
1984 • Sue Carlson, Stephen Paul Miller, ABC No RIO, New York, NY