Behind the Studio Doors - Susan York FRSS

Join Susan York FRSS in conversation from Santa Fe, New Mexico with Isabel de Vasconcellos as part of our Behind the Studio Doors series featuring international members of the Society.

Susan York FRSS is primarily known for reductive work in graphite and ceramics. Her cast and drawn forms are often installed to engage with the architecture of a particular space, combining precise geometry with unexpected elements of asymmetry and tension.

Her site-sensitive installations engage the existing architecture of a chosen site: a room, a wall, or a piece of paper. York’s studies in graphite are a homage to subtlety, with irregularities interrupting otherwise austere geometric forms and producing results that are perhaps more felt than seen. In the exhibition catalogue, Susan York: 3 Columns, Lucy Lippard wrote, “This nuanced fusion of the intellect and sensual experience is precisely what York achieves. In doing so, she takes Minimalism past the post, and into a realm of her own”.

Isabel de Vasconcellos is an independent curator and cultural producer, with extensive experience collaborating with artists and visual arts organisations to realise world-class public commissions and exhibitions. She writes on contemporary art, photography and design, and is the author of Fourth Plinth: How London Created the Smallest Sculpture Park in the World.