Join us on Friday, November 1 from 6:30 – 8 pm in The Galleries for a short film screening and opening reception celebrating the exhibition of Susan Sommer’s work on view at the Kimmel Cultural Campus First Tier Promenade from October 12, 2024 – February 1, 2025.
Filmmaker Samantha Schutz’s Silent Rhythm, A Selection of Recent Paintings by Susan Sommer surveys a selection of Sommer’s paintings from the past year. We see the artist work on the painting An Experiment, from its start to its completion. Critic Peter Frank and curator Robert Metzger, who have followed Sommer’s work for more than twenty years, provide additional commentary. Metzger and Schutz will join Susan Sommer in conversation following the screening of the film.
Sommer’s work continues to evolve with the inspiration that comes from the seasonal shifts of her natural surroundings. These recent works reflect time spent immersed in Upstate New York’s landscapes and are created as abstract scenes observed through her studio’s picture window. With an ongoing soundtrack of jazz in the background, Sommer brings the foothills of the Catskill Mountains to life in bold strokes and blocks of color that dance within the confines of each canvas. She describes her process as a “rhythmic evolution” where colors are applied in response to sound and light—the physical act of painting becomes a dance and the resulting image is created as an extension of these environmental prompts.
Susan Sommer received her BFA from Moore College of Art & Design in 1972 and studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1965-70. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Albuquerque Museum, NM; Government House of St. Vincent, West Indes; University of Santa Clara, CA; and Vanderbilt University, TN. She has exhibited widely and nationally for over fifty years. Sommer has also published a children’s book titled An Awakening in the Jungle, a story about inclusion and understanding that she both wrote and illustrated.
Image: Susan Sommer '72, An Experiment, Oil on Linen, 2024, 40 x 30.5 in. Courtesy of the artist.
