Artist Statement

In my studio practice I choose to deal with the intangible themes of faith, hope, and love. These eternal mysteries both undergird and challenge my Christian beliefs and the practice of painting. I’ve come to see these concepts as existing on the other side of reason, and sometimes I find them difficult to understand. However, I believe there is a feeling of knowing, a feeling of connection, a communion through the act of painting, that conveys an essence without words.

Two studio questions that drive my work are: What is the presence of absence? And, how does one create a formless form? I have found that abstract art allows for a wide range of possibilities to convey ideas central to my work such as “the Word made flesh.”

While I appreciate pure abstraction, I find my work holds a firmer content with recognizable elements such as symbol, expressed through color and form. For this reason, I often employ shoes in my work. As a symbol, the shoe is utilitarian/everyman and ties one to both the present and the past. Indeed, in my imagination I see angels wearing shoes, and this makes the invisible more tangible and real.

In my work I utilize the language of color, a powerful vehicle of expression when coupled with an attention to surface, often layered to create multiple textures. In this way, otherworldly concepts are tactile and present in the here and now. The sacred finds a home in the quotidian, for true spirituality is reality in the everyday.

CV

Susan Kanaga

LIVES AND WORKS IN Lucca, Italy
Contact

Education

• 2013-2017 Master of Fine Arts Study under Filippo Rossi, Florence, Italy
• 2013 Bachelor of Fine Arts Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine – Painting with honors
• 2008 Last Looks Make-up Academy, New York City, New York
• 2004 Floral Design School, Super Weston Mare, England
• 1977 Associates Degree in Paralegal Studies Rockhurst College, Kansas City, Missouri
• 1976 Bachelor of Arts and Science University of Denver, Denver, Colorado

Solo Exhibitions

• 2010 Pops of Color, Rowley Gallery, Orleans, Massachusetts

Exhibitions

• 2018 New Jerusalem, San Miniato al Monte, Florence, Italy; Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy; Mount Tabor Centre for Art and Spirituality, Barga, Italy
• 2017 Spirito Creatore, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence, Italy; Strasbourg, France; Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Church of the Transfiguration, Orleans, Massachusetts;
• 2017 Through Light, Villa Via Sacra, Barga, Italy
• 2016 Through Light, Bergamo Viarena Gallery, Bergamo, Città Alta, Italy
• 2015 Si Fece Carne, International Art Exhibit of Contemporary Sacred Art, Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy
• 2015 Frammenti, Villa Via Sacra, Barga, Italy; Patmos Arts Center, Orleans, Massachusetts
• 2014 Luce Del Mondo, Villa Via Sacra, Barga, Italy; Church of the Transfiguration, Orleans, Massachusetts; Patmos Arts Center, Orleans, Massachusetts
• 2012 BFA Thesis Exhibition, Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine
• 2012 Mile 916, Studio Couture, Detroit, Michigan
• 2011 Life Sources and Creative Faith: Exhibit of Sacred and Liturgical Art, Panzano in Chianti, Florence, Italy
• 2011 The Art of Music and Dance, Rowley Gallery, Orleans, Massachusetts
• 2010 BFA Show, Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine
• 2010 Centennial Art Show, Pembroke Hill School, Kansas City, Missouri
• 2010 Merit Show, Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine

Commissions

• 2006 Atrium of the Church of the Transfiguration Orleans, Massachusetts – Design of Creation Cycle for 10 limestone column capitals
• 2002  Pascal Candle Stand, Church of the Transfiguration, Orleans, Massachusetts – Design for iconography
• 1999-2001  Exterior Lintel of the Church of the Transfiguration Orleans, Massachusetts – Design for 7-ton stone sculpture
• 1998-1999 Interior Capitals of the Church of the Transfiguration Orleans, Massachusetts – Designs for iconography

Awards

• 2009-2013 Presidential Scholarship Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine

Apprenticeship

• 2002 Mosaici Antichi e Moderni, Ravenna, Italy, Apprentice to Alessandra Caprara for the fabrication of the mosaic floor of the Church of the Transfiguration, Orleans, Massachusetts

Workshops

• 2017 Lux Ecclesiae studio assistant to Filippo Rossi, Orleans, Massachusetts
• 2016 Lux Seminalis studio assistant to Gabriele Wilpers, Orleans, Massachusetts
• 2014 Lux in Tenebris studio assistant to Filippo Rossi, Orleans, Massachusetts
• 2008 Painting Workshop, Ellen Rolli, Boston, Massachusetts

Symposiums

• 2018 Florence and the Idea of Jerusalem, Florence, Italy, November 8-10
• 2017 The Arts and Ecumenism, What Theology Risks in Artistic Creation
  Paris, May 12-13 – Artistic Creation and Theology of the Holy Spirit
  Strasbourg, May 19-20 – The Contribution of the Reformation to a Theology of the Arts
  Florence, May 25-27 – The Theological Vocation of Artists
  New Haven, Connecticut, October 20-21 – Sacred Arts in North American Contexts
  Orleans, Massachusetts, October 27-29 – The Word in Color, Action, Music, and Form

Publications and Press

• 2019 Art and Theology in Ecumenical Perspective, edited by Timothy Verdon, 2019
• 2017 The Ecumenism of Beauty, Timothy Verdon, 2017
• 2017 Spirito Creatore: Exhibit of Contemporary Sacred Art by Susan S. Kanaga and Filippo Rossi
• 2017 L’Arte e il dialogo religioso, Interview