Susan Hockaday
GYRE, 2017
Biography
Susan Hockaday was born in 1938 in St. Louis, Missouri into a family of artists, architects, designers, city planners, and photographers. She rebelled by studying Human Physiology (and art) at Vassar College, and planned to become a professional medical artist. Instead she worked for a few years in hospital laboratories, and made drawings of surgical procedures. Eventually she moved to Princeton in 1964 with her husband and their 3 children. She continued her art education at Princeton University, The Museum School in Boston, and Pratt Graphics in NYC. Starting in 1971 her family has spent every summer in Nova Scotia on a farm they bought on Cape Breton Island. After 43 years in Princeton she and her husband moved into a barn nearby in Hopewell NJ, which they rebuilt with the help of their son, an architect. Part of the old hayloft became her studio, and they have used the open space in the barn to host jazz concerts of musicians from New York.
Artist Statment
My art practice reflects the influence of my family, the many years I spent living in the countryside in Missouri, plus 50 summers in rural Nova Scotia. Science, art, and design are all one to me. My focus has always been the intricate patterns and details of the natural world. I have worked in many mediums, but for the last 25 years photography has been my principal tool. In 2002 I learned about the massive amount of plastic trash in all the oceans and felt that my work had to change; nature was no longer what it used to be. It was seriously threatened by pollution and the effects of Climate Change. The connection between trash, climate change, and nature is now the focus of my work. Plastic is my symbol of the struggle. I find that photography is the best tool for exploring these relationships. My practice is to arrange a mixture of objects, plastic, natural, industrial, and domestic on a table and photograph them from above. The images tell stories about the problems we face.The resulting photos are printed in large format as Digital Chromatic Prints at Print Space in New York.
View more of Susan's work by visiting her website:
https://www.susanhockaday.com/
Susan Hockaday
GYRE, 2017
Biography
Susan Hockaday was born in 1938 in St. Louis, Missouri into a family of artists, architects, designers, city planners, and photographers. She rebelled by studying Human Physiology (and art) at Vassar College, and planned to become a professional medical artist. Instead she worked for a few years in hospital laboratories, and made drawings of surgical procedures. Eventually she moved to Princeton in 1964 with her husband and their 3 children. She continued her art education at Princeton University, The Museum School in Boston, and Pratt Graphics in NYC. Starting in 1971 her family has spent every summer in Nova Scotia on a farm they bought on Cape Breton Island. After 43 years in Princeton she and her husband moved into a barn nearby in Hopewell NJ, which they rebuilt with the help of their son, an architect. Part of the old hayloft became her studio, and they have used the open space in the barn to host jazz concerts of musicians from New York.
Artist Statment
My art practice reflects the influence of my family, the many years I spent living in the countryside in Missouri, plus 50 summers in rural Nova Scotia. Science, art, and design are all one to me. My focus has always been the intricate patterns and details of the natural world. I have worked in many mediums, but for the last 25 years photography has been my principal tool. In 2002 I learned about the massive amount of plastic trash in all the oceans and felt that my work had to change; nature was no longer what it used to be. It was seriously threatened by pollution and the effects of Climate Change. The connection between trash, climate change, and nature is now the focus of my work. Plastic is my symbol of the struggle. I find that photography is the best tool for exploring these relationships. My practice is to arrange a mixture of objects, plastic, natural, industrial, and domestic on a table and photograph them from above. The images tell stories about the problems we face.The resulting photos are printed in large format as Digital Chromatic Prints at Print Space in New York.
View more of Susan's work by visiting her website:
https://www.susanhockaday.com/
Recent Exhibitions & Events
It has been impossible to have exhibits in the last few years, but working in the studio has been a wonderful way to survive the pandemic. I have continued my work on the Climate Change Project that I started several years ago. Recently I became a member of Soho Photo Gallery in Tribeca. I look forward to exhibiting there and will have a photograph in their 50th Anniversary exhibit going up in January.
Selected Recent Solo exhibits
2019, The Markland, Dingwall, NS, Canada
2018, Drumthwacket, Princeton, NJ
2018, SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2016, SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014, Bonsack Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2014, SOHO20 Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2013, The Markland, Dingwall, NS, Canada
Recent Exhibitions & Events
It has been impossible to have exhibits in the last few years, but working in the studio has been a wonderful way to survive the pandemic. I have continued my work on the Climate Change Project that I started several years ago. Recently I became a member of Soho Photo Gallery in Tribeca. I look forward to exhibiting there and will have a photograph in their 50th Anniversary exhibit going up in January.
Selected Recent Solo exhibits
2019, The Markland, Dingwall, NS, Canada
2018, Drumthwacket, Princeton, NJ
2018, SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2016, SOHO20 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014, Bonsack Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2014, SOHO20 Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2013, The Markland, Dingwall, NS, Canada
