Susan Smereka
Burlington, VT
ARTIST BIO
Susan Smereka was born and raised outside of Toronto, Ontario, and now has lived in Vermont for over thirty years. Smereka graduated from Concordia University, Montreal with a BFA in 1994. Smereka co-founded 'new new art studio' in 2020 with her partner Kevin Donegan in Burlington, Vermont. It is a space for teaching, exhibitions, and the creation of fine art. She was the co-curator and art handle for New City Gallerie from 2016 to 2019, when it closed.
Susan exhibits regionally; “Family”, Scavenger Gallery, 2023, “Not Far from Black and White”, Green Tara, 2021, hair drawings at Burlington City Arts; monoprints and paintings at the AVA Gallery, Lebanon, NH; installations and groups shows at the Flynndog, Burlington, VT; solo show of paintings at Rhombus Gallery, Burlington, VT; paintings at the Firehouse Gallery, Burlington, VT. Smereka's grants and residencies include; a Development Grant from the Vermont Arts Council, 2009; Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council, Rotary International Group Study program in India, 2004; Kittredge Foundation Grant, 2002; Incentive Grants from the Vermont Arts Council, 2001 and 2002; three-month residency in Taos, New Mexico, from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, 1998 and 2008; and a three-month residency at the Vermont Studio Center, 1996 Susan continues to teach printmaking at Burlington City Arts, Two Rivers Printmaking, and in her studio.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Whether working at the etching press with ink and collage, writing and bookmaking, or video
installation, I seek to reconcile opposites: resolution, beauty, and calm with angst, confusion,
and unknowns. For me, beauty is a process of discovery: finding and creating it where I didn’t
see or feel it before. Currently, the focus is on family and transforming the concept of
“dysfunctional families”: the aim is to see 'dysfunction' as an integral and necessary part of
family structure and dynamics. To see patterns and inherent beauty in the confusion of family
and their histories.
My dual citizenship of Canada and the USA reflects duality, as a tension and concept, that has always been part of my life and practice. In the studio, it manifests most prominently in the relationship between chaos and order: chaos as intuition, uncertainty, and coincidence; order as clarity, harmony, and connection. I like to challenge traditional ways of working and the practice of adhering to a singular media. In a deceptively disordered way, l use a variety of techniques and materials; painting, printmaking, sewing, collage, video, installation, and book arts. This tentacled way of working emerged early on in school - as a painting and drawing major at Concordia University in Montreal, I made ‘drawings’ with wood in the woodshop and created installations for painting class.
Through making art I experience disorganization and coherence repeatedly and delightedly - a
process that has engaged me for 40-plus years.
