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.
from local, damaged kilims
from local, damaged kilims
Draga Šušanj is a Yugoslavian born/American environmentalist and multidisciplinary artist, her work spans sculpture, installations, land art, and photography..
Šušanj explores the intricacy of social notions of belonging to nature as our "home" - Oikos, Greek for house-home is at the root of Ecology. Šušanj's site-specific installations, often ephemeral, aim for a sustainable coexistence with the natural environment, captured 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
