In the Studio | Suzan Woodruff
“Look deep into nature, then you will understand everything better.”
– Albert Einstein
In a system developed over two decades, beginning with inventing and fabricating my patented “Gravity Easel” my process incorporates observation (nature), study (physics) and practice (meditation) into a dynamic creative system of "controlled chaos" that generates pattern formation. I combine properties of topological mixing (pigment and viscosity of media), water, gravity, erosion, wind, and period orbits to recreate natural phenomena with fractal features cast acrylic panels. These “strange attractors” are paint waves and disturbances that, through the energy created by the movement of my easel, oscillate along the panel surface creating the characteristics of a pattern created by a body of water, and the nacreous powders create the illusion of emergent structures in nature. Another influence on my work is light as a refractive and fracturing tool appropriated from the ideas of kintsukuroi – “the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.”
My method of painting uses the Gravity Easel, which I designed 25 years ago. I believe that colors are not only physical expressions of light and space, but have psychological dimensions as well; they trigger unconscious associations ranging from the sexual to the sublime. I purposefully leave space for each individual viewer’s narrative projection to complete the work’s meaning for his or herself.
Biography
Suzan Woodruff, born into a fourth-generation family of the American West. As a child in Phoenix, she began roaming the desert, immersing herself in endless spaces and spectacular natural vistas and star-filled night skies that infused the combination of nature and ethereality that form the basis of her abstract paintings and sculptures. She was influenced by the spirituality of her grandmother, who raised her with the philosophy of Self Realization, her gold prospector grandfather who taught her how to "read" rocks, and the distinctly Arizona-Bohemian lifestyle of her mother. A survivor of 20 oral cancer operations, Woodruff remains an avid hiker, biker, boogie boarder and reader of rocks as well as books.
Woodruff, who has been a self-supporting artist her entire adult life, received an art scholarship and attended Arizona State University. While studying painting and sculpture at ASU, she also exhibited painting and sculpture as well as working as a printmaker and illustrator. She left Arizona for Los Angeles, where she ran an art press and exhibited her paintings in Phoenix, Los Angeles and internationally. After meeting her husband, the novelist Bruce Bauman, she moved to New York. In 1999 they returned to Los Angeles.
Woodruff’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. She is a recipient of an NEA grant and received residencies at the Sanskriti Center for the Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and 18th Street Arts Center. Woodruff has been reviewed or featured in Art Ltd. Magazine (cover), Budapest Sun (cover), Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Artweek, Delhi Today and Money magazine.
Her work has been collected in scores of museums, corporate and private collections such as the House of Saud, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, Todd Wagner, Ibrahim Alkazi (The Sepia Collection), Martin and Norma Stevens, Michael Korie, The Scottsdale Center for the Arts, City of Mesa Cultural Center, The Sanskriti Foundation, Ritz Carlton Hotels, AT&T, Sperry Rand, SONY, Warner Bothers and many more.
EDUCATION
1981 Apprentice to Shinkichi Tajiri, Berlin, Germany
1976-80 Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Billis Williams Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Klappinge Kalmar LAN, Sweden
2017 Nancy Toomey, San Francisco, CA
2016 George Billis Gallery LA, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Launch, Los Angeles, CA
2015 David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Katherine Cone Gallery, Culver City, CA
2011 William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, SM, CA
2009 William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, SM, CA
2009 ABBA Fine Art, Miami, Fl
2009 Victorine Gallery, Newport, RI
2008 The Art Factory, Budapest, Hungary
2007 William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, SM, CA
2006 Berman/Turner Projects, Bergamot Station, SM, CA
2005 George Billis Gallery, LA, CA
2005 William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, SM, CA
2003 George Billis Gallery, NY, NY
2003 William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Station, SM, CA
2003 Scope Fair LA, George Billis Gallery,
2003 Hill Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2001 George Billis Gallery, New York, NY,NY
2001 William Turner Gallery, Burning Woman Paintings, Venice, CA
2000 Art Konsult, Meditation & Mandala Paintings, New Delhi, India
2000 18th Street Arts Center/Highways, Burning Woman Performance, CA
1998 University of Arizona, Tarantella: Painted Word, Tucson, AZ
1995 European Museum, Nassau, Bahamas
1986 John Cline Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
1985 Duke University, Durham, NC
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Nancy Toomey, San Francisco, CA
2025 Aqua Art fair, Miami, FL
2025 Seattle Art Fair
2024/25 George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2024 Atlanta Art Fair, 2024
2024 Billis Williams, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Billis Williams Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 TKO Art, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Nancy Toomey, Fine Art, Los Angeles
2022 San Francisco Art Market
2021 FP Gallery, Los Angeles
2016 Nancy Toomey Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2016 LACE, LA, CA
2016 Santa Fe New Mexico Museum of Art SF, NM
2015 Women’s Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
2015 Notes Towards a Feminist Archive, Sydney, Australia
2014 Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, FL
2014 Art Space Virginia Miller, Coral Gables, FL
2014 Toomey-Tourell, SF, CA
2013 Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College, LA, CA
2013 Art Hamptons, Victorine Gallery, Newport, RI
2013 Houston Art Fair, Victorine Gallery, Newport, RI
2013 Group Show, Katherine Cone Gallery, Culver City, CA
2012 The Summer of Jack, Katherine Cone Gallery, Culver City, CA
2012 Art Space Virginia Miller, Coral Gables, FL
2012 Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA
2012 OCMA, Orange County, CA
2012 Toomey Tourell Fine Art, SF, CA
2006-13 Santa Monica Museum, Incognito, SM, CA
2011 William Turner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2011 Stephen Cohen Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA
2010 William Turner Gallery, SM, CA
2010 Brett Wesley, Las Vegas, NV
2009 Deep Dive, Bridgehampton, NY
2009 Pharmaka Gallery, LA, CA
2009 Melissa Morgan, Palm Desert, CA
2008 ABBA Fine Art, Miami, Fl
2007 Flow, Riverside Museum, Riverside, CA
2007 George Billis Gallery, NY, NY
2007 MODAA, Culver City, CA
2004 Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2004 Inaugural Exhibition, George Billis Gallery, L.A., Los Angeles, CA
2003 George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2001 Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2001 Fresh Paint, Robert Kidd Gallery, Birmingham, MI
2001 Off The Hook, SK Gallery, Group Show, Venice, CA
2001 Meditation Paintings, Highways Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2001 Wonder, Aguirre Gallery, San Mateo, CA
2000 Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes, CA
1998 NAWA New Members Presentation, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
1997 The Tarantella, PS 122, New York, NY
1995 Apex Gallery, New York, NY
1992 Bornstein Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1990 Bornstein Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1989-93 L.A. Art Fair, Bornstein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Met Life, LA, CA
Tsardia, Newport Beach
The Cone Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
The Ritz Downtown, LA, CA
The House of Saud, Saudi Arabia
Jada Pinkett Smith & Will Smith
Todd Wagner, CA/Texas
Gary Bauer Collection, Houston, TX
Wynn Collection, Las Vegas, NV
Apex Art Gallery, Tribecca, NY
Ibrahim Alkazi, The Sepia Collection, NY,NY
Stevens Collection, NY, NY
Sanskriti Foundation, New Delhi, India
Mel Ilberman, CEO SONY Music Int'l, NY, NY
Fred Wistow, Warner Brothers Corporate Council, NY, NY
Richard Del Belso, Warner Brothers, LA, CA
Corporate Collection, Double Tree Resorts, Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale Center for The Arts, Scottsdale, AZ
American Bank, Corporate Collection City of Mesa for Cultural Center, AZ
IBM, Corprate Collection
Sperry Rand Aerospace, Corporate Collection
TransAmerican, Corporate Collection
SELECTED PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
2024 William Moreno, Artillery Magazine
2024 Interview, Canvas Rebel
2024 Shana Nys Dambrot, 13ThingsLA
2024 Interview, Canvas Rebel
2023 Architectural Digest
2016 Genie Davis, ArtScene
2016 Diversions LA
2016 Interview, Museum of Nonvisible Art
2015 American Painter List Artists to watch
2014 Drew Lenihan, Art Ltd.
2014 a. Moret, Art Ltd.
2013 Art Ltd Review- Echo Maker
2013 Huffington Post, Suzan Woodruff, Making the World
2013 Cracks in the Light, Retrospective Book, Katherine Cone Gallery Pub.
2013 Joan Quinn Profiles, Interview with Joan Quinn
2013 LA Review of Books
2013 Fabrik
2013 LA Magazine, Woodruff on Turrell
2013 Art Talk KCRW, Edward Goldman
2013 Artweek
2013 LA, I’m Yours
2013 Guest of a Guest
2012 ARTWEEK LA
2012 Art Pulse
2012 LA, Art Star
2012 ARTWEEK LA-13 questions
2011 LA I’m Yours (Interview)
2011 Fabrik
2011 Huffington Post
2011 White Hot
2011 Newport Magazine, Newport, CA
2008 ARTWEEK LA, 2011 Art Ltd. (Cover)
2008 Budapest Sun (Cover)
2007 Flavorpil
2006 LA Weekly, Pick of the Week
2006 Malibu Press
2005 Money Magazine
2004 Flavorpill
2003 LA Weekly, Pick of the Week
2003 Venice Magazine
2001 LA Times
2001 D’Art International
2001 Artweek Magazine
2000 Outlook, New Delhi
2000 Delhi Today
PROFESSIONAL AND TEACHING
2002 SMARTS, artist in residence, Franklin Elem. School, SM, CA
2001 Josephine Press, Nontoxic workshop, SM, CA
1998-00 Women's Studio Workshop, Nontoxic workshop, Rosendale, NY
1997 Columbia Univ. Guest lecturer, Nontoxic workshop, NY, NY
1996 Roadkill Press, Printmaking Workshops, Kent, CT
1982-86 Phoenix Art Press, Master Printmaker
SELECTED COMMISSIONS, AWARDS, RESIDENCIES
2017 Moulin à Nef, Auvillar France
2000 Fellowship Residency, Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India
1997-03 Fellowship Residency, 18th St. Arts Complex, Santa Monica, CA
2000 Daughters of Discordia-book cover, Suzanne Owens, BOA Editions
1998-99 Chelsea Magazine- cover
1997 Merry Go Round Corporation
1996 Fellowship Residency, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
1995 Fellowship Residency, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
1987-92 Karl Bornstein Gallery, Phoenix-Los Angeles, Numerous limited print editions
1987 KALA Artist in Residence, SF, CA
1987 Fellowship to collaborate with sculptor Shinkichi Tajeri
1986 NEA Fellowship Grant, Arizona Commission for the Arts