Susan Grace

Susan Grace, born in Missouri and currently based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a contemporary figurative artist whose oil paintings have their basis in the human form, but each portrait captures a figure in flux. Her work primarily focuses on the female figure and explores the various ways feminine identify can be expressed. In her portraits of women, organic forms, adornment, and masks are used to indicate psychological or spiritual states and to facilitate the creation of new personas. They both disguise and conceal as well as express a certain character and spirit.

Before she became a full-time painter, Grace taught at universities, and her academic background in English literature and theater informs her art practice. Using layering, fragmentation, and distortion, she creates space for multiple interpretations, gesturing toward a narrative that she ultimately leaves open. She sees the figures in her paintings as participants in unfinished dramas in which they are continually evolving, exploring possibilities for metamorphosis, delighting in the fluidity of identity, and remaining indifferent to a final resolution. She has received numerous awards for her work, and her paintings are in many private and public collections.