SUSAN SMEREKA - Susan Smereka

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Quartette at the Highland

6/20/2024

This was an awesome show. Thank you to Maureen O'connor Burgess for her curation of this show - bring these 4 strong printmakers together!. The show was at the Highland Center for the Arts. It ran from June 29 to August 4th.
For images of the show please click here!

Violaceous

6/12/2024

Main Floor Gallery:
Violaceous
Exhibit Dates: May 1 – June 15, 2024

While the color purple is relatively rare in the natural world, the SPA gallery will overflow with various shades, from bold magenta and periwinkle to earthy plums, wines and pomegranates. During the season when farm lilacs are budding and bursting into bloom, this symbolic color formerly reserved for royalty will have its day at SPA.

Exhibiting Artists:
Gretchen Alexander; Kate Arslambakova; Nancy Banks; Larry Bowling; Lian Brehm; Heidi Broner; Robert W. Brunelle, Jr.; Theodore Ceraldi; Robert Chapla; Kristine Chartrand; Anne Davis; Monica DiGiovanni; Linda DiSante; Mark Dixon; Martha Elmes; Kate Fetherston; Leslie Fry; Samuel Glueck; Laura Graveline; Chris Groschner; Tracey Hambleton; Bruce Hasse; Stephany Hasse; Christine Henninger; Rob Hitzig; David Hurwitz; Matt Larson; Dawn Littlepage; Kathleen Merrick; Orah Moore; Marianne Mullen; Maggie Neale; Lyna Lou Nordstrom; Rebecca Pedula; Kristin Richland; Susan Bull Riley; Leslie Roth; FH Rudi; Gail Skudera; Susan Smereka; Mary Tapagna; Julie Taylor; Robert Towne; Adelaide Tyrol; Marcie Vallette; N Wasko; Roger Weingarten; Sarah Wesson; Tamara Wight; Pamela Wilson; Craig Wiltse; Arthur Zorn

Attaching 2 fascinating essays, one by Hannah Foskett and another by Dian Parker that served as inspiration. To view the essays, click HERE.

Alignment

4/6/2024

Showing our works inspired by the once in a lifetime event in our front yard!
SATURDAY APRIL 6th
Open from 12 to 5 pm with all the other artists on the 2nd floor of 4 Howard St.
Then from 7 to 10 pm we will conclude the day with a party and continued viewing of the special work for a special occasion! Joins us!
Documentation of the event and the work - CLICK HERE

Phased

4/5/2024

Friday April 5th – Friday April 26th
Opening Friday April 5th - 5-9pm.

SPACE gallery is hosting this exhibit is curated by Nikki Laxar.
"The moon pushes and pulls the tides, similar to how art moves us. We experience our own cycles through the orbital glow of the moon and the life giving energy of the sun. How do we feel when they dance together? In this curated exhibition, The Space Gallery invites you to experience celestial creations by seven local Vermont artists. All working in different mediums sharing a theme of the cosmos and the atmosphere we know. "

Images of the show and my work - CLICK HERE

Deana Allgaier – @deanaallgaier – watercolor moon/landscapes
Erin Bundock – @ebundock_arts – character driven moon phases in mixed media/acrylic
Jen Blount – @valleyroadart – abstract landscapes
Kristin Richland – @sweetenemyart – celestial animal realms
Mike Konrad – @mk______art – repurposed mixed media sculpture
Nikki Laxar – @nikkilaxar – cosmic hand cut collages
Susan Smereka – @smsmereka – abstract mixed media

Visions of Totality

3/23/2024

Thirty-Two Vermont Artists Interpret the Solar Eclipse Saturday
March 23 – Sunday, April 21, 2024

At the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro, VT, curated by Maureen O'Connor Burgess, a great show of so many different ideas in vast array of materials.

Up and Down, In and Out: Embroidery and Its Kin

3/23/2024

Studio Place Arts Put on this diverse show that runs from March 13 to April 20th. The curators — Cabot artist Janet Van Fleet and SPA executive director Sue Higby put together a variety of works by 34 artists from Vermont and beyond. I was happy to be part of this show with my two works. Sewing is something that has bubble forth very prominently in my work in the last 7 years, so it still surprises me that I get attention for my work in the gener of fiber. I love to be at the sewing machine creating!

There are two reviews:
Seven Days by Pamela Polston
Times Argus by Mary Gow
More images of the show click here.

Locus

12/17/2023

Central Vermont Medical Center
December 10 - January 20th
Reception; January 4th, 4 - 6 pm
CVMC Art Gallery is located in the lobby of the hospital..

Images of the work.
By repurposing old artworks in combination with found objects (which include old book parts, maps, family letters, surgical masks, used clothing, photographs, and residues from making art), I sew and print nostalgic ephemera and mundane studio detritus into new forms. Memories become unencumbered and universal. Sense of place is found through reconfiguring maps, and envisioning family functions and dysfunctions. I use both loops and a quarter almond shape to represent humans energetically. A loop line differentiates an interior and an exterior. A quarter almond shape is a portion of a whole, thus can be seen as a yearning connection.
Family and their dynamics guide my work; our ancestry, which seems precious, is continually altered by the introduction of new people into a family (marriage, adoption, divorce, children out of wedlock, etc.) By collaging, I connect forms (or don’t), and the layers of shapes that ensue speak to the complexity of these familial relationships. In addition, I explore a tension that I experience when memories become burdened by personal ephemera. The titles of my work are often found within the work as the old book pages and cut-up letters provide a multitude of textual options.

September 28th, 2023

9/28/2023

This work was featured in this article put out by Saatchi. I am really glad to be include in such a focused article about thread and the tradition of fiber arts done by women. The conversation around fabric and the fiber arts is gaining ground and interest.

Traces at the Kent

9/26/2023

ART AT THE KENT - Calais, Vermont
September 8 - October 8, 2023
Art in New England

For images of the show please click here!

It was so exciting to be part of this exhibition; meeting and working with Nel Emlen, Allyson Evans, and David Schütz was such delight!
What follow is my statement, a poem for the show.

TRACES

its thereness missing
its absence present

a found lost
coupled and

missing

details
unclear, cut away
covered
hint more

cracked articulation,
blurred substance
abandoned sigh

ambiguous hold
nudging marked residues
sewn over and into
yellowed foxing
ghosts patched

deceased letter
illegible script
erasure line

symbols hidden
removed
instinct etched
with thread

Cut it Out!

8/5/2023

Twiggs Gallery
254 King Street, Boscawen, NH
September 9-October 28, 2023
Opening Reception: September 9 from 1-3 pm

Cut It Out! showcases the transformative power of cutting as a creative process. Artists explore how the act of cutting flat materials to generate space and/or recombining cut-out materials can give birth to new narratives, juxtapositions, and compositions.

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