Sukey Bryan

Artist Statement:

I work with images that explore the interaction and transformation of natural elements propelled by tidal, climatic, volcanic and tectonic forces. I am interested in nature's contradictory delicacy and power, the phases of existence and the various ways the promise of life is fulfilled. The simultaneously regenerative and destructive cycles of nature evoke awe and exultation in their beauty and the suggestion of causality and order within chaotic and complex systems.

Currently, I am making paintings and prints of glaciers, in various stages of ice and melt. The paintings, executed in the studio, are formed from a distillation of memory, notes, photographs, and sketches from materials I gathered as artist-in-residence in Denali National Park and Preserve and from Prince William Sound in Alaska. I use layers of paint, glazes, drawn marks, and scratches working the painting into a mingling or distinct and indistinct areas and shapes. I pursue specificity in observation to arrive at an extended vision, but also pare away detail to open the way for metaphorical and emotional possibilities. I am interested in the resonance between the cycles and elements in nature and human experience.

I received a Visual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. During the summer of 2008, I was Artist-in-Residence at Denali National Park in Alaska.

My work has been exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions nationally including C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Hang Gallery, San Francisco, Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Triton Museum of Art, University of San Francisco, Holter Museum of Art, Palm Spring Desert Museum, The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum, the Addison Museum of Art, Colorado State University, City of Las Vegas Charleston Heights Arts Center, and the Indianapolis Art Center. I received a a Bachelor of Arts with majors in Fine Arts and English from Yale University and an MFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art. Raised in Connecticut and in Europe, I now reside and work in Stanford, California.

I have painted series of work based on a variety of environments including volcanic systems, tidal waves, wildfire, ocean shallows, tides, rain, and grasses. My current work uses aspects of the Alaskan environment including glaciers, icebergs, and glacier rivers as well as snowfall of the California Sierra.