Talk

MFA Fine Arts presents a talk by faculty member Suzanne McClelland (MFA 1989 Fine Arts).

Suzanne McClelland (b. 1959, Jacksonville, Florida) includes large-scale paintings, works on paper, and books in her practice. These often extract fragments of speech or text from various 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 of technology 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 physical and spatial context.

McClelland’s work has been exhibited extensively since the early 1990s. Solo exhibitions of her work have been presented at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York, NY; the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA; and the Orlando Museum of Art, FL. Her work was included in the 1993 and 2014 Whitney Biennials, and she has been included in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Parrish Art Museum, NY; Wexner Center for the Arts, OH; Pulitzer Arts Foundation, MO; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY. 

Her work is held in numerous public collections including that of; the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Parrish Art Museum, NY; the Walker Art Center, MN; and the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, among many others. 

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, Visiting Artist Residency with Urban Glass, Brooklyn NY and Resident Artist in 1999 and 2022 with Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine 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. Mcclelland is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery, NYC.

McClelland earned an MFA at the School of the Visual Arts, New York, NY and a BFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. McClelland lives and works in Brooklyn and Orient, NY.

Talks is a series of lectures by artists, writers and scholars presented by MFA Fine Arts. Talks are held on Tuesdays at 3:00pm at 133 West 21st Street in Room 101C and on Zoom. Participation in the Q&A is limited to MFA Fine Arts students attending the lecture in person.

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