About Events Give to FVA Apply

Suzanne Lacy

Suzanne LacyArtist’s Statement

I emerged as an artist – from studies in science and psychology – in a turbulent and experimental era. My M.F.A. from CalArts in 1973 provided an opportunity to study with Allan Kaprow and Judy Chicago at a formative time for performance and conceptual art. An abiding curiosity about experience, relational aesthetics and ordinary life led to my engagement in narrative. These narratives – particularly those reflective of gender, class or racial inequities – provided a field of artistic experimentation that created precedents for today’s “public practices.” How do broad audiences understand and embrace art, how do communities develop and how does art engage with social change?

My work is a frame for aesthetic questions on the boundaries between art and life, myths of audiences and popular culture’s construction of reality. Throughout my career I continue to advocate for the development of an ethical, transient, public and accessible art. My works include the intimate (recording memories of cancer patients), the vastly public (430 older women reflecting before 3,000 people); and the activist (working on peace and reconciliation in Colombia). I am drawn to social themes of race, gender and class equity alongside existential ones about consciousness and physicality.

Website: suzannelacy.com

Biography

Select Solo Projects and Exhibitions

2010
Tattooed Skeleton (in progress, completed November 2010), Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain

2009
In the Last Throes of Artistic Vision, Suzanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles

2008
Trade Talk, Installation with Peter Kirby and Michael Rotondi, for Allan Kaprow-Art as Life, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

2007
Stories of Work and Survival. performance and installation, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Select Group Exhibitions

2010
Donna: Avanguardia Femminista Negli Anni ’70 dalla Sammlung Verbund di Vienna, Galleria Nazionale de’ Arte Moderna, Milano, Italy

2009
Re-Act Feminism: Performance in the 1970s and Today, Akademie der Künste, Berlin

2008
Memory is Your Image of Perfection, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, Calif.

2007
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Museo del Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain

Select Community-Based Artwork

2010
University of Local Knowledge, project with Knowle West Media Center, Bristol, England

2009
Laton Live! Reunion/Reúnion (collaboration with Otis College of Art and Design MFA students), Laton, Calif.

2008
The Way That We Rhyme: Women, Art and Politics, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco

2007
SWARM. Performance for Art Scene Anniversary, with Kim Abeles and Jeff Cain, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

Select Fellowship/Awards

2010
College Art Association Distinguished Artist Award

2009
City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Travel Grant

2008
Durfee Artists’ Completion Grant

2007
Center for Cultural Innovation

EDUCATION

1973, M.F.A.
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, Calif.