Artist Susan Woldman Elfer Wins Kuniyoshi Grant

Kuniyoshi Grant winner Susan Woldman with painting. All photos courtesy of the artist

Susan Woldman: Paintings

Isabella Garrucho Gallery

40 West Putnam Ave, Greenwich, CT 

July 7 - September 22nd, 2019

By WM, June 2019

“The most important guideline for me when I paint is not to second guess myself. Everybody has an opinion. Luckily this time around opinions fell in my favor. I am very honored to receive the Kuniyoshi Grant. It feels really good," writes artist Susan Woldman, recent recipient of the Kuniyoshi Grant funded by the Sara & Yasuo Kuniyoshi Foundation. Yasuo Kuniyoshi, a Japanese-American painter whose work has been honored notably by The Whitney and Smithsonian, blended Western and Eastern styles of artmaking in his practice. For more information: see The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi.  

In Woldman's work, in her own words: "I bring my sensibility as a sculptor into these recent paintings. Thick textured impasto surfaces combine with landscape imagery to create depth, movement and light. This series is inspired by form rather than color. By limiting myself to a mostly black and white palette I’m able to more freely explore the dynamic of space and how elements of the painting relate to each other. It’s a great challenge because I often rely on color when I don’t know where to go. In these paintings my focus is to resolve the image through light and reflection. I paint on wood because I’m a sculptor at heart and scratching marks on the surface gives me the feeling that I’m building something. My favorite painting is always the one I’m working on at the time."

Susan Woldman Elfer received her BA Degree from Sarah Lawrence College. After studying sculpture in Lacoste, France through the Cleveland Institute of Art she went on to get her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City where she has lived for the past thirty years. WM