Solo exhibition: Not So Domestic, Marcia Wood Gallery, Jan. 7 - Feb 13, 2010 - installation images.

Susanna Starr lives and works in New York City. She has exhibited in group shows at Marcia Wood Gallery in 2003 and 2004. This will be her first solo exhibition at Marcia Wood Gallery. Starr earned a BFA in sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art, an MFA in sculpture at Yale, and has studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Starr has received numerous awards including an Edward F. Albee Foundation Residency, Montauk, NY, and two NY Foundation for the Arts Artist’s Fellowship Grant, and has been written about extensively in publications including Art Review, The New York Times, NY Arts Magazine, and New Art Examiner among others. Starr has exhibited in museums, art centers and galleries across the U.S. beginning in 1986, including Museum of Contemporary Art, Fort Collins, CO (solo 2002), Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, NM (solo 2000), Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY, Dieu Donne papermill, NYC, White Columns, NYC, Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL.

Susanna Starr is known for her sculptures and hybrids of sculpture and painting that employ a range of material. From sponges saturated with gallons of paint, to painted, cut and layered mylar, to delicate wall works of wood veneer with designs meticulously cut out, Starr’s practice employs a talent for translating materials in unexpected ways. Hallmarks of her works are an exploration of formal issues of medium and process, a witty sense of play, and a carefully balanced tension resulting from the contradictory use of material. The upcoming exhibition presents wall works of wood veneers cut into oversized yet delicate doily shapes.

Susanna Starr, Artist Statement 2009; In my work, the handcrafted object is a way to create unexpected transformations out of the ordinary or the familiar; shifting process and material as a way to uncover something new. I am particularly interested in the dynamic between material and image. For the past several years, I have been developing a body of work that combines images of vintage crochet doilies with a micro-thin wood veneer. Using a penknife to cut intricate patterns into the veneer, these pieces are essentially monumental paper cuts. The wood veneer imparts a rich substantial surface that is finished with traditional varnish or rubbed with oil. In this body of work, the furniture and the innocuous crocheted doilies that are used to protect and decorate its surfaces have morphed into one large, absurdly delicate object, compressing and distorting both image and material. Humorous, contradictory, and quietly subversive, the doily has gone wild and the wood has been fully domesticated.