Susan Wald
Susan Wald is a Melbourne based artist, practicing since 1989. She is a figurative artist whose work explores notions of identity and mortality. The internal life rather than the appearance of what we present to others, is what interests her. She believes painting in the 21st Century can be a potent medium, able to speak about and reflect on our time in a powerful way.
Her paintings, drawings and monotypes include the figure, portraiture and landscape. One of her abiding passions is theatre. Since 1991 she has worked with a number of theatre companies (Anthill, Gilgul and Fraught Outfit) producing works - drawings, paintings, monotypes - from rehearsals of various plays including Samuel Beckett's Endgame, Eugene Ionesco's The Chairs, Strategy For Two Hams; and Sophocles' Elektra.
Her more recent work focuses on the landscapes of Mungo through painting and monoprint and have been exhibited extensively over the past few years in solo and group exhibitions (including Tacit). Wald said of the work and the landscape itself:-
Spending time at Lake Mungo I felt an urgency to try and record my feelings and responses to this land; both the beauty and the pain. Despite its history of bloodshed and decimation, the land has continued to give. This was the seed that this body of work grew from.
Click here for artwork by Susan Wald
Exhibitions at Tacit Art
2024 The Gathering
Susan Wald’s luminous canvases, with their distinctive foreground assemblies, invite storying. In each scene, the assemblies become animated; the players take on disposition and purpose. They herd together, their eyes on the interloper; they gain safety in numbers.
Sometimes, humanoid, they converse -- convivial guests around a dining table. Other times, they form a conga line, dancing along an infinity loop across canvases. The images lure us to find a narrative, despite their subject matter. For the models of these players are bleached skulls of animals, vestiges salvaged from beaches, roadsides and deserts – goats, a sheep, kangaroos and wallaroos, a fox, a dog. For one, there’s a weathered fragment of spine; for the rest, no clues, no shards of former lives. The little heads suggest powerlessness, counter to their likely past lives. The goats’ horns suggest authority. This is haunting. Globally, we are witnesses to the menace of such hubris and horn-locks.
Exhbitions
solo
2024 The Gathering - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2022 Mungo - Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne
2021 Mungo Prints - Printmaker Gallery, Melbourne
2020 Mungo Prints & Paintings - Mildura Arts Centre
2017 Crow Paintings & Works on Paper - Langford120, Melbourne
Theatre Paintings - Janet Clayton Gallery, Sydney
2016 Desert Monoprints - The Art Vault, Mildura
2015 Theatre Paintings & Works on Paper - Langford120, Melbourne
2014 A Survey Show of Theatre & Figure Work - The Art Vault, Mildura
2013 Monoprints - Langford120, Melbourne
2012 Paintings & Works on Paper - Langford120, Melbourne
2010 Elektra - The Dog Theatre, Melbourne
2008 The Figure, Work in Progress - Ochre Gallery, Melbourne
2006 Clean Kill - Ochre Gallery, Melbourne
Clean Kill - Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
2005 Clean Kill - Geelong Art Gallery
1998 Stairwell Series - Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
1996 Three Solo Exhibitions - Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
1994 Collection in Context - Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
group
2024 Form - Queenscliff Gallery
2023 Australlian Monoprint Prize - Firestation Print Studio, Melbourne
2022 Editions Print Prize - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Winter Salon - Queenscliff Gallery
2021 Square of Sunlight - Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2020 20[2020] - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2019 Visualising Mildura - The Art Vault, Mildura
Layers of Settlement - The Art Vault/LaTrobe University, Mildura (+ symposium)
Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2018 Art Print Award - Mildura
Impressions - Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
Locus (Distinct) - Queenscliff Gallery
International Women's Day Print Exhibition - Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW
Edge - Langford120, Melbourne
Beauty or Beast - Queenscliff Gallery
Editions - Tacit Art, Melbourne
2017 Three Women - Janet Clayton Gallery, Sydney
Works - Tacit Art, Melbourne
Contemporary Australian Drawing #7 - Langford120, Melbourne
2016 Impressions - Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
Creatures - Queenscliff Gallery
Places - Queenscliff Gallery
2006-2016, A Decade of Printmaking From the Charles Sturt University Collection - Griffith Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2015 Contemporary Australian Drawing #5 - Saci Gallery, Florence
Gippsland Print Award - Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
Trajectories - Fifteen - Langford120, Melbourne
2014 Impressions - Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
13 Melbourne Printmakers - Joshua McClelland Print Room & Rathdowne Galleries, Melbourne
2013 Portas Abertos - Forum Fundacao Eugenio de Almeida, Evora, Portugal
2009 Post - Place Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Group - Ochre Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Return of the White Bull - Geelong Art Gallery
2000 Annual Summer Print Show - Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
1999 Finding Before Seeking - Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
Annual Summer Print Show - Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
1998 Annual Summer Print Show - Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
1997 Annual Summer Print Show - Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
1996 Group of Five - Chapel Off Chapel, Melbourne
Annual Summer Print Show - Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
1993 Contemporary Art - Jewish Festival of the Arts, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne
The Golem Curated by Barrie Kosky - Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourne
1992 Acquisitive Print Award - Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
1991 Richmond Acquisitive Print Award - Richmond Town Hall, Melbourne
1990 Artworks 2 - South Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne
1989 Artworks 1 - South Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne
1987 Group - Distelfink Gallery, Melbourne
Collections
Australian National Gallery - Australian Catholic University - Australian Print Workshop - BHP Collection - Charles Sturt University - Gippsland Regional Gallery - Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery - Print Council of Australia - State Library of Victoria - The Art Vault, Mildura - Tweed Regional Gallery - Toowoomba Regional Gallery - University of Wollongong - Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
Awards
1991 Bachelor of Fine Arts - First Class Honours
2019 Print Commission - Print Council of Australia
2018 Australian Print Award, Australian Print Triennial - Finalist
2013 Doug Moran Portrait Prize - Semi-finalist
1992 Acquisitive Award - Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
1991 Dean's Acquisitive Award - Victoria College
1990 David Rosenthal Acquisitive Award
1990 Nexus Design Award
Residencies
2020 The Art Vault residency - Mildura
2019 The Art Vault residency - Mildura
2018 The Art Vault residency - Mildura
2017 The Art Vault residency - Mildura
2016 The Art Vault residency - Mildura
2015 The Art Vault residency - Mildura
2014 The Art Vault residency - Mildura