Susan Cushing is a celebrated American artist living and working in New York City, who paints American realism with a conceptual basis. Her paintings speak to the idea of Second Wave Feminism. While she doesn’t categorize herself as a feminist artist, she is a supporter of justice in all its forms. She is steadfastly committed to the education of young women through education. Founded in Harlem, she started a national Not For Profit organization called The Goal Project  in 2016, which focuses on young women’s empowerment. She is also the founder the Bad Girl salon that concentrates on woman in the arts, as well as serving on the Smithsonian American Woman’s History Museum Committee. Susan also serves on the Board of the Salvation Army.

Susan Cushing’s highly stylized narrative landscapes are inspired by the decade of the 1970’s and reminiscent of the lifestyle photographs of Slim Aarons and the post-modern environmental style of Alex Katz and David Hockney. Susan's paintings are evocative of the world of casual elegance as she beautifully captures the colors and themes of summer on canvas. While these snapshots of life - garden party, elegant country house porch and poolside scenes -- are pleasing to look at, each one is composed of reflections and shadows, light and dark spaces, that are also a metaphor of life. You can't have the bright light without the shadows.

You can imagine the conversation. You want to be there. At first glance, you take in the landscape from afar yet you soon realize that you are part of the picture eavesdropping from a voyeur's perspective. You find yourself wanting to linger inside each of the paintings. Being there becomes a hidden mantra. The venues, the dress, the postures, the ease of living bring you back to old movie glamour, that of a charmed life. You are part of a narrative landscape, a portrait of sorts.

Susan’s paintings have many layers as she describes her work “Turning up the volume on color, and using shadow and reflection to create abstract shapes within real settings is what interests me.

I love to play with the strong light at the beginning and end of the day to create extreme patterns -- allowing the abstract shapes to shine through as the main subject of the paintings. The colors are saturated. The value is turned way up. The richness of color portrays the rich textures of life. ”

EDUCATION

Susan lives and works in New York City, Palm Beach and the Hamptons. Born in North Carolina, Susan received a BA from Davidson College in 1985 and has studied at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD); The Corcoran School Washington, DC; the National Academy of Design, NYC, and the Art Students League, NYC.  

Susan has studied with Charles Hinman; Cornelia Foss; Bill Scharf; Ronnie Landfield and Peter Homitzy.

 

Susan Cushing

EXHIBITIONS

Susan’s works have shown in exhibitions at:

  • The Nassau County Museum of Art

  • the 4 North Main Gallery, Southampton

  • East End Arts Center, Long Island

  • Foster Gallery Palm Beach

  • Claridge House Gallery New York

  • The Quogue gallery

  • a solo exhibition at the Quogue Library