Biography

SUSAN WALD

In a light-filled studio, she works on the monoprints, the most hand-made method of printmaking and the one most open to accident and resolution. Preoccupied with defining figures inhabiting their own internal logic of mood, space and light, as she concentrates, her mind is freed to dip below the conscious to trace the rocks and fissures of a female psyche.

The oil paintings, of solitary figures that are estranged, and are a further meditative abstraction using a limited range of colours and the direct force of her mark-makings to sustain a drama as we approach these figures reaching out to us.

(Extract: THE MAKING, DR. M E MCGUIRE)

1989 — 1991
BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS, PAINTING,
HONOURS FIRST CLASS, VICTORIA
COLLEGE,
PRAHRAN

1986 — 1988
STUDIED DRAWING WITH ARTIST & TEACHER PATRICK MOSS

EXHIBITION LIST

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022 

MUNGO Exhibition, Hosted by Queenscliff Gallery at Fortyfivedownstairs

2021

MUNGO PRINTS, Exhibition, Printmaker Gallery, Fitzroy

2020

MUNGO PRINTS, Virtual Exhibition, Printmaker Gallery, Fitzroy

MUNGO, PAINTINGS AND PRINTS, Mildura Arts Centre, Mildura

2017

CROW, PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER, Langford120, North Melbourne

THEATRE PAINTINGS, Janet Clayton Gallery, Paddington

2016
DESERT MONOPRINTS, The Art Vault, Mildura

2015
THEATRE PAINTINGS & MONOPRINTS, Langford120, North Melbourne

2014
A SURVEY SHOW OF THEATRE & FIGURE WORK, The Art Vault, Mildura

2013
MONOPRINTS, Langford 120, North Melbourne

2012
PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER, Langford 120, North Melbourne

2010
THE DOG THEATRE IN CONJUNCTION WITH PERFORMANCE OF ‘ELEKTRA’ BY SOPHOCLES, The Dog Theatre, Footscray

2008
THE FIGURE, WORK IN PROGRESS, Ochre Gallery, Collingwood

2006
CLEAN KILL, Ochre Gallery, Collingwood

CLEAN KILL, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale

2005
CLEAN KILL, Geelong Gallery, Geelong

1998
STAIRWELL SERIES, Helen Gory Galerie, Richmond

1996
THREE SOLO EXHIBITIONS, Helen Gory Galerie, Richmond

1994
COLLECTION IN CONTEXT, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington

ANTHILL THEATRE IN CONJUNCTION WITH PERFORMANCE OF ‘STRATEGY FOR TWO HAMS BY IONESCO, Anthill Theatre, Gasworks

1992
GILGUL THEATRE IN CONJUNCTION WITH PERFORMANCE OF ‘ES BRENT’ BY BARRIE KOSKY, Town Hall Motors, Balaclava

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022

WINTER SALON, Queenscliff Gallery, Queenscliff

2021

SQUARE OF SUNLIGHT, Curated by Helen Gory, Backwoods Gallery, Collingwood

2020

20[2020], Tacit Gallery, Collingwood

EDITIONS 20, Tacit Gallery, Collingwood

2019

VISUALISING MILDURA, The Art Vault Vault, Mildura

LAYERS OF SETTLEMENT EXHIBITION/SYMPOSIUM, La Trobe University & The Art Vault, Mildura

EDITIONS 19, Tacit Gallery, Collingwood

2018

APT PRINT AWARD,  Mildura

IMPRESSIONS 2018, Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy

LOCUS (DISTINCT), Queenscliff Gallery & Workshop, Queenscliff

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, Printmaking Exhibition, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, N.S.W

EDGE, Global Centre For Drawing, Langford120, North Melbourne

BEAUTY OR BEAST, Queenscliff Gallery & Workshop, Queenscliff

EDITIONS 18,  Tacit Gallery, Collingwood

2017
THREE WOMEN
Janet Clayton Gallery, Paddington, N.S.W

WORKS, Tacit Gallery, Abbotsford

CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN DRAWING #7, Langford120, North Melbourne

2016
IMPRESSIONS 2016, Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy

CREATURES, Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop, Queenscliff

PLACES, Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop, Queenscliff

2006—2016: A DECADE OF PRINTMAKING, A CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY ART COLLECTION EXHIBITION, Griffith Regional Art Gallery, N.S.W

CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY ART COLLECTION, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, N.S.W

2015
CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN DRAWING #5: FACSIMILE EXHIBITION, Saci Gallery, Saci Institute, Florence, Italy

GIPPSLAND PRINT AWARD,
Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale

TRAJECTORIES — FIFTEEN, Langford120, North Melbourne

2014
IMPRESSIONS 2014, Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy

13 MELBOURNE PRINTMAKERS, Joshua McClelland Print Room & Rathdowne Galleries, Carlton North

2013
PORTAS ABERTAS — OPEN DOORS PROJECT, Forum Fundacao Eugenio De Almeida, Evora, Portugal

2009
POST, Place Gallery, Richmond

Ochre Gallery, Collingwood

2005
Ochre Gallery, Collingwood

2004
RETURN OF THE WHITE BULL,
Geelong Gallery, Geelong

1999
FINDING BEFORE SEEKING,
Helen Gory Galerie, Prahran

1996
GROUP OF FIVE, Chapel Off Chapel, Prahran

1996—2000
ANNUAL SUMMER PRINT SHOW,
Helen Gory Galerie, Prahran

1993
AN EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART, JEWISH FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne

THE GOLUM, CURATED BY BARRIE KOSKY, JEWISH FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS, Jewish Museum, Melbourne

ANTHILL THEATRE IN CONJUNCTION WITH PERFORMANCE OF ‘THE CHAIRS’ BY IONESCO, South Melbourne

ACQUISITIVE PRINT AWARD, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington

1991
RICHMOND ACQUISITIVE ART AWARD, Richmond Town Hall, Richmond

GRADUATE EXHIBITION, Perth Institute Of Contemporary Arts (Pica) , Perth

1990
ARTWORKS 2, South Melbourne Town Hall, South Melbourne

1989
ARTWORKS 1, South Melbourne Town Hall, South Melbourne

1987
Distelfink Gallery, Hawthorn

COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

2012
Featured Artworks in ‘Wakey Wakey’ by Adrian Goodman, VCA Masters Film

2010
Collaboration With Director Adena Jacobs And Company Fraught Outfit, Recording The Process And Performance Through Drawing, Painting And Printmaking. PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER Exhibited In Conjunction With Performance Of ‘Elektra’ By Sophocles, Footscray

1994
Anthill Theatre, Director Jean Pierre Mignon, Recording The Process And Performance Through Drawing, Painting And Printmaking. PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER Exhibited In Conjunction With Performance Of ‘Strategy For Two Hams’ By Ionesco, Gasworks, Albert Park

1992
Anthill Theatre, Director Jean Pierre Mignon, Recording The Process And Performance Through Drawing, Painting And Printmaking. PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER Exhibited In Conjunction With Performance Of ‘The Chairs’, By Ionesco, South Melbourne

1992
Gilgul Theatre, Director Barrie Kosky, Recording The Process And Performance Through Drawing, Painting And Printmaking Of ‘The Dybuk’, ‘Es Brent’ And ‘Levad’ – Gilgul’s Exile Trilogy By Barrie Kosky. PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER Exhibited In Conjunction With Performance Of ‘Es Brent’, Town Hall Motors, Balaclava

1991
Anthill Theatre, Director Jean Pierre Mignon, Recording The Process And Performance Through Drawing, Painting and Printmaking. PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER, Exhibited In Conjunction With Performance Of ‘Endgame’ By Samuel Beckett

PUBLICATIONS & REVIEWS

2015

Crossing the line 3: Global Drawing, Janet McKenzie - Studio International

“Susan Wald’s painting is both intense and impressive. Her monoprint for CAD #5 manages to convey on a small scale a sense of loss and alienation.”

2015

THEATRE PAINTINGS & MONOPRINTS, Prologue Text By Dr. M. E. McGuire, (Exhibition Catalogue)

2012

JOURNEYS INTO DRAWING IN CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN DRAWING #1, Dr. Christopher Heathcote By Janet Mckenzie

2011

SINGING FOR ALL HE’S WORTH, Book Cover Portrait Of Jacob Rosenberg. — Essays In Honour Of Jacob G. Rosenberg, Edited By Alex Skovron, Raimond Gaita And Alex Miller, Picador

2008

AROUND THE GALLERIES, Ashley Crawford, The Age, October 11

2008

SLOW ART FEEDS HUNGER FOR THE BODY, Jeff Makin, Herald Sun, October 10

2007

SUSAN WALD (MITTELMAN) IN UNTITLED, PORTRAITS OF AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS, Dr. Christopher Heathcote, (Macmillan Art Publication)

Expression is a recklessly overused word. ‘I was being expressive’ has become the flimsy excuse of the untrained or inept, the public having made the term synonymous with the muddled composition usually seen in an amateur art show. This is why professional artists will hesitate before describing a colleague as an expressionist. How then to do justice to the oeuvre of Susan Wald? Her paintings and drawings are the real thing. They express. There is no way to discuss them without confronting a genuine psychological weight. Some inner truth is externalised, is being pressed out.

2007

UNTITLED, PORTRAITS OF AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS, Sonia Payes, (Macmillan Art Publication)

2006

BLOODY BATTLE, Sightlines Critical Guide, Penny Webb, The Age, April 7

2006

CLEAN KILL, V. Majzner Opening Speech

“When she is on the run of an idea, Sue paints and draws obsessively. The walls of her studio get gradually covered floor to ceiling with drawings and paintings. Her process usually begins with drawing. Drawing enables her to figure out her ideas, to get inside her subject matter, to understand it. Sometimes it also means that she has to work ‘on location’ as in the case of this series of works. I recently asked her ‘what made you stay in the abattoir to draw and paint in such a morbid place — couldn’t you just work from photographs?’ ‘I just had to be there was her reply.’ Sue commits to her subject matter with a passion…”

2006

Melbourne Magazine Issue, Meagan Backhouse, The Age, 18 April

2001

AUSTRALIAN PAINTING, 1788—2000, Bernard Smith With Terry Smith And Christopher Heathcote

“The waning of conventional expressionism was highlighted by the efforts of the few expressive artists who squarely faced those dark, irrational moments in human behaviour. Susan Mittelman, for instance, honed an art of quiet agony with the simplest of means: emotive brushwork and a monochrome palette. Her oil studies, which have us gaze down upon a nude woman lying awkwardly at the foot of a stairwell, succinctly evoke the distress of the wounded and vulnerable, of those who feel flung down a well of misery by an uncaring world.”

1998

SUSAN MITTELMAN: PAINTINGS AND MONOPRINTS, Chris Boyd, The Big Issue, May—June Issue

Adena Jacobs' Letter, THEATRE PAINTINGS & MONOPRINTS

ACQUISITIONS & ACCOLADES

RESIDENCY
_

2021

THE ART VAULT, MILDURA

2020

THE ART VAULT, MILDURA

2018

THE ART VAULT, MILDURA

2016

THE ART VAULT, MILDURA

2014

THE ART VAULT, MILDURA

AWARDS

2019

PRINT COMMISSION,  PRINT COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA

2018

FINALIST, AUSTRALIAN PRINT AWARD, AUSTRALIAN PRINT TRIENNIAL, MILDURA

2013
SEMI-FINALIST, DOUG MORAN NATIONAL PORTRAIT PRIZE

1992
MORNINGTON PENINSULA PRINTS, ACQUISITIVE AWARD COLLECTION

1991
DEAN’S ACQUISITIVE AWARD, VICTORIA COLLEGE, PRAHRAN

1990
DAVID ROSENTHAL ACQUISITIVE AWARD

1989
NEXUS DESIGN AWARD

COLLECTIONS

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL GALLERY

AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

AUSTRALIAN PRINT WORKSHOP

BHP COLLECTION

CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY

GIPPSLAND ART GALLERY

MORNINGTON PENINSULA REGIONAL GALLERY

PRINT COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA ARCHIVE

STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA

THE ART VAULT, MILDURA

TWEED REGIONAL GALLERY, NSW

TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL GALLERY, QLD

UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG, NSW

VICTORIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS