Susan Davidoff

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Susan Davidoff

Susan Davidoff

Biography

Born: El Paso, Texas, 1953
Current Residence: El Paso, Texas

Based in the Chihuahuan desert of West Texas, Susan Davidoff creates drawings, paintings, prints, and collaborative installations informed by her interest in structure and perception of the natural world. Davidoff’s imposing plant silhouettes are records of her daily interactions with the landscape. Beautifully rendered, yet hauntingly stark, the images catalogue her natural surroundings through the use of materials collected from nature.

Davidoff completed her M.A. and an M.F.A. at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Her work resides in public and corporate collections such as the El Paso Museum of Art, Texas; Hallmark Collection, Missouri; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, National Museum of Women in the Arts, D.C.; and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Missouri; among others. Davidoff exhibits nationally, and has been a recipient of several grants and awards, including a Mid-America National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Ford Foundation/Pollack-Siqueiros Bi-national Art Award.

Artist Statement

Night Walk 1, 2013
Night Walk 2, 2013
Night Walk 3, 2013


“These lithographs are part of an ongoing exploration of structure in nature, and the overlay of systems we have developed for observing, mapping and defining natural forms and phenomena.

They began as I experienced the rapidly changing daylight in late summer in a far Northern latitude. The retreating light and advancing shadows moved quickly enough to feel the daylight hours shrinking.

When I returned to the desert, I started series of night walks. The small area illuminated by the beam of a flashlight and the shadows in the surrounding darkness brought back the feeling of walking in a place where the light was rapidly disappearing as the landscape headed toward winter.”

Regiones Botanicas de la Tierra: Antilles No. 1, 2001
Regiones Botanicas de la Tierra: Antilles No. 2, 2002

“I am interested in the energy that plant forms have on their own, without reference points or indication of scale. Often the scale is larger than life. The relationship of forms refers more to the changing perception one experiences while walking, or my desire to enlarge something that could be easily missed, than to the actual sizes of the plants.”

“The ideas of a journey, most often an actual walk or hike, is the genesis for much of my current work. On my walks, I observe, sketch, photograph and collect the organic forms that serve as a basis for these works. The act of walking becomes a part of my work, and the images become symbols for the journey. The walks may be close to my home – the Chihuahuan Desert – or through tropical rain forests or alpine meadows.” (- Susan Davidoff)

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