Déja vu
May 24 -June 30, 2001
Woodward Gallery
Woodward Gallery is delighted to introduce Artist Susan Breen in her premier, solo exhibition. Although a new name in the art world, Susan Breen emerges with a strikingly fresh, creative style and the soul of a well-established painter.
By covering the entire surface of a panel in dark sepia then removing gradations of the dark to reveal the image, Breen’s method explores consciousness each time, allowing the technique to determine the final outcome.
At the moment of realization, when the dark is peeled away, a sense of déja vu affects the viewer. We are pulled in. The paintings work into our psyche, create shifts in our perception, then release us with a recognition which deeply resonates.
The result is an art that blurs seemingly flash-frozen moments into fragments of dreams. Her monochromatic paintings evoke a kind of collective memory – often formally abstract – while they present to the viewer a visual language that feels both eerily private and gorgeously universal.