BIO
Susan Makov, a native of New York, has been living in Utah for over 30 years. Her work consists of oil and acrylic paintings, woodcuts, letterpress broadsides and handmade books.
“Makov has achieved mastery in the old sense, the way artists were expected to in past centuries. Her command of graphic imagery, both technically and aesthetically, appears to be encyclopedic, as witness her range of work, including paintings, book bindings, and printed works: broadsides, texts, and illustrations. Her former students have become influential teachers in turn, who will continue to teach the high standards evident in her definitive, energetic lines and sharp embossing’s, especially in graphically complex images of animals and their anatomies. In the five images here, she transforms potentially conventional ecological statements into piercing lessons viewers may try to turn away from, but which once seen are unlikely to be shaken off. Their power comes in part from her close association of pollution, here represented by trash, and birds not normally associated with humans, and so immune to the self-loathing that causes humans to denigrate pigeons, seagulls, and other overly familiar species. More to the point, the trash also suggests homes destroyed by natural disasters like hurricanes, putting viewers in the same predicament: victims of recoiling nature.
One exception demonstrates the effectiveness of Makov’s deep skill set. In the bird-less painting “Pile,” light-colored glyphs on a black ground generate a mountain of trash. Down into the middle of this cuts an area of stark white, giving a sense of depth to the massive heap, but suggestive also of an architectural interior, as if the point was that we dwell in just such a pile or our own trash. Here again, “Nest,” in which baby birds peer out into another trashed landscape, makes the point that in the sealed terrarium we share, we cannot escape the fate we create for others.”
From “Continuing Conversation” by Geoff Wichert, 15 Bytes, October 2014
LINKS
ARTIST IMAGES
Swimming with the Trash: woodcut, 24 x 18”, 2012
Surprise Finds in the Glacier Melt: Acrylic Painting, 4 x 3’, 2014
Seagull Pile: woodcut, 24 x 20”, 2014
Leftovers in the Woods: woodcut, 24 x 18”, 2012
Nest: Acrylic Painting, 4 x 3’, 2014
Is It All In Your Head?, woodcut, 24 x 18”, 2012
Coral Reef Debris: woodcut, 24 x 18”, 2012
Collections of a Lifetime: woodcut, 30 x 20”, 2014
Glacier Melt: woodcut, 24 x 18”, 2014
Pile: Acrylic Painting, 4 x 3’, 2014
Artist listings in our Utah Artists Directories are open to all visual artists who reside part-time or full-time in the state of Utah. The listings will remain on our site as long as the artist resides in the state. There is no annual fee for the artist listings. A one-time setup fee is required to create an artist listing. To learn how to create your listing click here.
Categories: Painting | Printmaking | Utah Artists - M
