SUZANNAH WAINHOUSE

Suzannah Wainhouse (b. 1983, Vermont) is an artist who lives and works in Sagaponack, NY. She graduated from Pratt Institute in 2005 (BA). Wainhouse produces works on paper and canvas that reflect upon the natural world and consciousness. Greatly influenced by the connection and relationship between humans and animals, her paintings are infused with a mythological narrative that binds the human, animal, and anthropomorphic worlds. The imagery and ideas of the ‘Other’ and the ‘Alien’ recur throughout her work, as well as the idea of finding the center or the edge via mystical perspectives. 

Wainhouse's recent group shows include:
Sargent’s Daughters - NYC, NY / 2023
WILLOUGHBY - Southold, NY / 2023
AB NY Gallery - East Hampton, NY / 2022
Julien Cadet Gallery - Paris, France / 2022
Upcoming is a a solo presentation with NBB Gallery —
Brussels, Belgium in January 2024.

Robert Nava excerpt from interview with Suzannah at Sargent’s Daughters, summer - 2023:
Just the pressure of the speed. The nature of society now feels like everything has to be a success every time, and you have to forget about the whole notion of failure. Often, some of the best discoveries happen through failure, and I think what could be a failure in a certain time period could easily be a success in another time as tastes keep changing.

I’d like to think the structure of meaning can come and go with any kind of viewership at any point in time. I like the way that Suzannah’s forms activate something which, in my reading, is very ancient. There’s a lot of ideas of time and space. For me, when I look at Suzannah’s work, I like that it’s taking something that can touch on people’s subconscious. It’s universal while being both literal and very abstract.

~Robert Nava 2023

Stella Schnabel writes on Wainhouse’s work:
”Giving names to things seems to lessen the thing, but that is the way we communicate these days. Through language of identity. We all know too much about that.
There are nameless figures that are pulled out in her pictures. Zeus and Herculean ideas. But then again, a mark of white appears to be a ghost you see. I had to name it. Sadly. That passes us. They crumble on our heads asking for more. And more of what?
These feelings have a stake in the game of marks. If there are marks that make us want to see more, well then I hope we get to battle with the marks and find what it is we are trying to galvanize with.
When something gives me a question I get very attracted, and it’s a long lasting attraction. It’s not just a pretty face. It’s a horrible face that keeps scratching at me and will never go away, and then when I give it the time that is necessary, it stops. Those itches seem to dwindle when I look at Suzannah’s works, coming from a tumble of life.
Marks never feel so good - looking at the things we love / Caravaggio, Bacon, Palermo, some Ernst-esque traits. We look for those symbols but know that, ultimately, we can create our own language of symbols.
What a gift to have a new deck of language, somewhat familiar and distant at the same time. I keep feeling that itch when I see these paintings. Messy, decidedly spiteful color choice – yet so beautiful and all encompassing.
I’ll think about an image in a few days and have the answer to some other question in my life. I think that makes for a very good painting.

~Stella Schnabel, spring, 2023