SUSAN GOLDSTEIN

Member Since: 2003

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Susan Goldstein was born in the middle of the last century in Indianapolis, Indiana and moved to Boulder, CO to attend college in 1968. After moving to Denver in 1978 she began working for Denver’s weekly newspaper, Westword, eventually becoming the staff photographer. She transitioned from the world of journalism to fine art in 1998. Goldstein has been described by Denver’s art critics as a multifaceted artist who in addition to creating many photographic and photo based bodies of work, has successfully made sculpture from antique office supplies, addressed a variety of political issues using collage and installation and generally explored mixing materials to make new imagery. The most recent collage work, Bending Time, unites her love of collecting, photography and collage.

Goldstein’s photographic work is included in numerous collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Modern Art, Joaquim Paiva Collection, Rio De Janiero, Brazil, Luz Astral Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Colorado Photographic Arts Center. Her work has been exhibited extensively including at the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Stoneham Gallery, Colorado Photographic Art Center and Colorado College’s Idea Space.

Website: susangoldsteinstudio.com

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

For the last several years the primary focus of my art practice has been devoted to UNDERCURRENTS and Bending Time, two very different bodies of work. The photographs in UNDERCURRENTS document the world I encounter. The collages in Bending Time allow me to create my own universe. Using opposite approaches to making images is essential to my creative practice. 

UNDERCURRENTS

Traveling by car and looking for images is a bit like eavesdropping on a conversation or looking through a stranger’s window. Without staying in a place for a period of time it is impossible to gain a deep understanding of the issues facing a community. However, it is possible to document visual clues that offer insight about the state of a place, the concerns of the residents and the hopes and sometimes failed dreams of those inhabitants. One universal theme I encounter in every state is patriotism, expressed in different ways, by the use of red, white and blue.

I describe the work as “taking the temperature” of the country. Many, but not all of the photographs in UNDERCURRENTS are inherently political and allude to or illustrate issues that have contributed to the deep and dangerous divisions in the current political landscape of the United States.

Bending Time

The handmade collages in BENDING TIME are the result of my passion for collecting and repurposing old, discarded, often damaged objects, ephemera and antique photographs.

My emotional connection to this work is totally different from other projects. When looking at the photographs, I know that my gaze is falling on the subjects the same way the photographer saw them many years ago. When I hold a portrait I suspect I am holding a print the subject held and studied. Some of the materials I use have survived since the mid 1800s. Occasionally I can see where a photographer retouched an image or I encounter a fingerprint embedded in an old negative, showing a presence that exists even in absence.

By combining parts of books, negatives, photographs, antique printed material, feathers, watch parts, children’s drawings, paper dolls, old postcards and anything that exists in my odd collections, I am able to create new images. These collages are painstakingly difficult to make because finding the elements that work together and are the proper scale is an endless challenge. The result is a unique, tiny, often textured collage.

CURRENT & UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS 

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