Visual, bicultural artist Draga Šušanj makes large scale, sculptural site-specific installations. She produces poetic narratives knowingly combining vernacular nature of a location with the precision of her craft.
Everlasting pea, Wild medicinal plant From the ongoing Earth Calls series of environmental installations with in situ materials such as wheat, water, wool, medicinal plants.
Draga Šušanj is a Yugoslavian born/American environmentalist and multidisciplinary artist, her work scopes sculpture, installations, land art, and photography.
Šušanj's work is centered around the intricacy of social notions of belonging to nature as our "home" - Oikos, Greek for house-home is at the root of Ecology. Her work closely knits art and science with a focus on climate change issues and sustainable strategies. At each locale, she employs her sense of place aiming for sustainably integrated coexistence with the natural environment. Often, Šušanj's site-specific installations are ephemeral, environmental interventions preserved in her poetic narrative images.
Šušanj’s is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2005. and has received awards, grant and fellowship support from the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, 2021; New York State Council on the Arts, 2015; Creative Glass Center of America, 2010; The Edwin Austin Abbey Mural Workshop Fellowship at the National Academy Museum, 2009; The Pritzker Foundation Endowed Fellowship, 2003; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 2002; Pilchuck Glass School, 1999 & 2002; the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1997-2000.
Šušanj has worked as a sculptor, educator, and designer at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, John G Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, and the Omega Center for Sustainable Living, Rhinebeck, NY.
Education:
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA
The School of Art and Design at Alfred University, Alfred, NY, MFA
Omega Center for Sustainable Living, Rhinebeck, NY, Certified Permaculture Designer
