Susan Bee is an artist living in Brooklyn. She has been a member of A.I.R. Gallery (in NY) since 1996. Bee has published sixteen artist’s books. She was the coeditor of M/E/A/N/I/N/G from 1986-2016. She has a BA from Barnard College and a MA in Art from Hunter College. Bee won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014. Her work has been widely reviewed and is in many private and public collections. Bee’s ninth solo show at A.I.R. Gallery, Anywhere Out of the World: New Paintings, will open on March 20 and run through April 19, 2020.

QUESTION:

In many of your mythological paintings of 2018 to 2020, the colors, patterns, and textures, and their relationships are animated and buoyant while the subjects suggest the feeling of “being trapped in the fragmented and alienating chaos of our times.” Will you talk about the contrast between your content and the ominous conflicts of the paintings and the formal aspects of the paintings including color, composition, and texture.

ANSWER:

Demonology, 2018

I paint to explore my thoughts and emotions in the face of the starkly dystopian tenor of our times. My mythological paintings are a response to my despair at the current political situation. My imagination, like the work of earlier artists to whom I feel connected, points to a more fertile path through the morass of our alienating and disintegrating environment.

Under water, 2019

In paintings like Demonology (2018), Anywhere Out of the World (2019), and Under Water (2019), the subject matter is important, especially as these paintings present subtle and understated self-portraits and emphasize the sense of “being trapped in the fragmented and alienating chaos of our times.” The imagery is a combination of imaginary and appropriated figures and forms. These works are full of tension as well as tenderness. The color, composition, and painterly texture bring the essence of the emotional message to life.

Anywhere Out of the World, 2019

I identify with the term that Ernst Kirchner used for himself: a Farbenmensch (color person). When I start a painting, I may sketch out the basic drawing in pencil, but I am drawn to bright oil colors and the texture of the brushstrokes, supplemented by the frequent use of oil crayon, sand, palette knife, and enamel, which jumpstart the composition and provide the pleasure in painting. In my studio, the paintbrush and a bright and layered use of colors and textures serve to carve out a dreamy, psychic space that is my refuge.