about the artist
So often, when we talk about artists, we talk about their art as a separate entity but for Susan Grabel, art is an integral part of her life. She is a sculptor, printmaker, wife, mother, daughter, caretaker, museum educator, teacher, mentor, community activist, computer programmer and all of those experiences are reflected in her art. Her work is always about something, inextricably tied to the social and political narrative of the world around her. She takes to heart Alice Walker’s affirmation that “Activism is my rent for living on this planet.”. Her art has been described by Robert Bunkin, former curator at the Staten Island Museum, as “influenced by her generation of 1960’s activism and her family’s humanist values, with a goal of increasing our awareness of social issues and ultimately our compassion.
Grabel’s work has evolved organically from early clay urban vignettes, to clay and wood environments exploring consumerism, homelessness, alienation and war, to handmade paper sculptures and collagraph prints on aging women’s bodies, to her work on Confluence— people coming together, embracing differences. Working with new technology at Staten Island Maker Space has enabled her to digitally translate her prints and collages into various sized works in wood. Her pandemic Reflections is a continuation of that work using cast paper sculptures and digitally cut wood cutouts.
Numerous galleries, universities, and museums across the country have exhibited her work and it has been included in such important surveys of sculpture as In Three Dimensions: Women Sculptors of the '90’s curated by Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, NY, 1995 and Sculpture of the 70’s: the Figure at Pratt Manhattan Center, NYC in 1981. The work has been reviewed by The New York Times, The Daily News, The Baltimore Sun, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, ARTnews, Arts Magazine, Artzine online, Ceramics Monthly, Feminist Art Journal, Industry, The New Haven Advocate, New Haven Register, Womanart, Women Artists News, and Women Artists Newsletter
Grabel’s work is included in the collections of the Staten Island Museum, Rowan University Art Gallery, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Figge Art Museum, Judson Memorial Church, Lawrence Community Works and numerous private collections.
Susan Grabel CV in pdf format