Susan Chorpenning is an artist known for her installations, sculpture, drawings and paintings showcasing light and visual phenomena. Her work has been shown in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Germany, San Francisco and Marfa, TX.
Main influences include the California light, and her longtime meditation practice, as well as decades spent in New York. Chorpenning’s theory has been that an artist can make work anywhere, as she has proved in artists’ residencies (Chinati, Wiesbaden, Omi, Joshua Tree Highlands) and multiple on-site installations in Europe, NY and CA. She now works in a studio in Altadena, nestled into the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, using reflective paint, light, and whatever comes to hand.
Artist’s Statement:
I work in drawing/painting and sculpture/installation, often combining the use of light with layers. Light is the source for my work, always involved with the sensual experience of looking and the perceptual experience of seeing.
The Light Rooms, titled by location, are site-specific installations shaped by architectural elements such as doors and windows. Light moves across these openings and creates an image, which are delineated in different materials, fixing one moment in time. In 49 Geary, light passes through the windows of the gallery, and the light pattern is noted in light grey carpet inlaid into a dark grey carpet. Each day, the light re-crossed these notations, but in a different place. Such works can be temporary installations, or built with brick, stone, tile or even paint to create permanent pieces. The daily movement of light is a layering across the fixed image of the light.
Drawing is a visceral activity, especially with the 100 Drawings series, using oil stick. This work is also in layers, scraping off one layer to expose what is underneath, allowing some layers to gleam while others are less visible, more mysterious. These layers in the drawings are related to the Light Rooms, both supporting the viewer to see what has gone before, compared to what appears on top, in the present.
