Artist Susan Ossman Joins Concept with Emotion

With conceptualization as strong as her brilliant colors and swirling shapes, painter Susan Ossman says that literally “everything and anything” inspires her.  “Inspiration may seem like a one-off event or emotion—but the artistic process deepens through many micro-sparks. The process involves focusing ideas and energies, intelligent design and choice of media, scale or collaborators, these have to produced micro-sparks and involve self critique and dis-inspiration or even desperation to make the work,” she relates.

Ossman describes her work as having developed into several decades of distinct bodies., noting that despite the changes to her art, “certain features prevail across subjects and styles- an attentiveness to the centrality of movement, and thus to rhythm, including in how color contributes to the ‘beat’ of a painting or installation.”

She recalls vividly reading the words of art historian Pierre Francastel, who claimed that “‘all images are in movement’ many years ago.” This artist views this statement as “a key to understanding what I am trying to develop artistically and intellectually.”

Asked what if anything has changed for her in her art career over the years, Ossman finds this a question to ponder. “It is difficult to answer this question since I have been painting as far back as I can recall: the oldest examples I have of my work are watercolor portraits from 1971, when I was 11 or 12. So many things have changed in me and in the world: I would have to write a book to answer this question. Indeed, I did write a book Shifting Worlds, Shaping Fieldwork, a memoir of Anthropology and Art,” she explains. The book was published by Routledge in 2021.

While her preferred medium is oil, she also works with “acrylic and watercolor or paper, seeds and thread, depending on the project. For installations I combine materials, often working with organza, paper, photographs and dyes,” she says, adding that “Besides visual art, writing is my primary practice.I also work with bodily movement, voice and words in performance.”

According to Ossman, thematically she is focusing on “a series called Gather Wood, Gather Words that explores the human conundrums of our relationship to other living beings, particularly in the context of climate change.”

She has created a transnational network working on this theme which includes projects in India, Brazil, the UAE and USA, as well as in Morocco, where she presented an exhibition and developed a performance with local art troupe Moumkin (possibility) at the Museum of the Tangiers American Legation in 2024.

“The project continues with the production of a play this summer by the New Views theatre called “Planet First” by William R. Duell which was developed through our joint research in Virginia’s Shanendoah Valley,” she adds.

Currently, Ossman has an exhibition at Diversions Fine Arts that includes a spectacular, massive orange-hued diptych among other works. Once that exhibition concludes at the end of July, she will be “developing my Lifeworks project, which uses bio-ethnographic techniques to produce artworks about the life experiences of other people. This relates to the presentation I plan to give at Diversions Fine Arts in the near future along with artist Julianne Allison,” she says.

Ossman is never one to rest on her laurels. “I am planning an exhibition in 2027 in Virginia related to the Gather Wood, Gather Words project; I am writing an e-book called Projects of Art Ethnography with fellow artist/anthropologist Lydia Nakashima Deggarod.”

If that isn’t enough, next year she will be organizing a meeting in Florence, Italy of her collective of serial migrant artist/scholars,  The Moving Matters Traveling Workshop. She has directed the workshop since 2013. “We develop programs on migration involving integrated research, exhibitions and performances. We are working on a partnership with the NYU global network to develop our work in Italy, and beyond, in a wide range of sites around the world.” More informations about this fascinating project can be found here. 

Summing up her work, with its sweeping lines, magical sense of movement, and illuminating, brilliantly rich palette, Osmman says simply, “It is a lyrical joining of concept and emotion.” And a beautiful one to behold.

 

View Ossman’s work in Midsummer, now at Diversions Fine Arts Gallery in Manhattan Beach. Artist talk and closing reception will be held on July 26th. DFA Gallery is located at 1069 N. Aviation Blvd.

• Genie Davis, images by Genie Davis and Susan Ossman