Portrait of the Artist. Photograph: Morgan Levy
Suzanne McClelland born 1959 in Jacksonville, Florida) has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad since the early 1990s. Her practice includes large-scale paintings, works on paper, and books. These often extract fragments of speech or text from various political or cultural sources, explore the social, symbolic and material possibilities that reside within language, and celebrate the physicality of speech and sound.
McClelland parses such issues as the limitations and malleability of communication, the impact technology has on interpreting information, and the mechanics of translation. Her works are infused with social commentary, underscoring the way in which language itself is gendered and politicized by its context.
McClelland has participated in the 1993 and 2014 Whitney Biennials and has been the subject of solo presentations at The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Amy Smith-Stewart; The University of Virginia Museum of Art, curated by Jennifer Farrell; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, Philip Morris branch, curated by Thelma Golden. Her paintings are held in numerous public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Yale University Art Gallery, The Albright-Knox Gallery, and The Walker Art Center.
Awards and residencies include Guggenheim Fellowship, PS1/ Clocktower Artist Residency, Nancy Graves Foundation Grant, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, Lab Grant Residency with Dieu Donne Papermill Lab Grant, Visiting Artist with Urban Glass and Resident Artist in 1999 and 2022 with Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture where she has served on the board of governors since 2000. Recent publications include the monograph “Suzanne McClelland: 36-24-36” with an essay contribution by Thierry de Duve, published by team (gallery, inc.) distributed by D.A.P.