Photographs by Arthur Drooker
ABOUT
Suzanne Frazier is an abstract painter and printmaker living in Northern California. She maintains studios in Sausalito and The Sea Ranch.
Suzanne received a degree in Biomedical Illustration from the University of California, Davis in 1977 and worked as a graphic designer until 1985. She has been painting for the past twenty-five years and printmaking for the past ten. Her focus has been conceptual abstracts since 2000. Her paintings and prints have been exhibited in galleries in the Bay Area, Sonoma County and Brooklyn, NY. She has been awarded two grants, Career and Artist, from the Marin Arts Council. Her work is held in several private and corporate collections including the corporate headquarters of Redwood Trust, Inc. and the estates of Clarence Clemons and William Macy. Suzanne is currently represented by Slate Contemporary in Oakland, CA.
STATEMENT
My work’s imagery stems from my earlier representational depictions of ocean water that I have simplified and pared down, over time, to concise graphic shapes. These graphic forms have become a water vocabulary for me that I use repeatedly throughout my paintings and etchings.
Paintings
In my paintings, these graphic forms—whether they are arcs, straight lines, geometric shapes or organic orbs—are repeated on the canvas in layers and colors that serve to represent the reticulated quality of the ocean’s surface. I paint these shapes onto canvas in a random, disorganized fashion until they fall into a repetitive order ultimately emerging into an abstract pattern of a rippled ocean surface. From here, I react to the complex field I have created and decontextualize it as I pay attention to it’s quality as a painting and the nature of the oil paint. The visual relation to the ocean’s surface becomes more of a sensation—something vaguely familiar—and can be interpreted as any interrupted, rippled field.
BORN 1955, Glendale, CA
EDUCATION
1977 BS, Biomedical Illustration, University of California, Davis, CA
2005-2012 The Oxbow School Summer Printmaking Program, Napa, CA
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1992-1994 Drawing Instructor, Enrichment Program, Mill Valley, CA
1984-1985 Production Artist, Esprit, San Francisco, CA
1982-1984 Agent, Georgia Deaver Calligraphy, San Francisco, CA
1977-1982 Graphic Designer, Jaciow, Kelley & Orr, Palo Alto, CA
EXHIBITIONS
2023 In the Weeds, The Sea Ranch Lodge, Sea Ranch, CA
2021 Above/Below, Marinship Gallery, Sausalito, CA
2021 Studio Discovery Tour, Gualala/Sea Ranch, CA
2021 SBHG Gallery, Summer Color show at Cornerstone, Sonoma, CA
2021 The 7th Annual Juried Art Show, Piedmont Center for the Arts—guest juror René de Guzman, Senior Curator of Art at Oakland Museum of California
2020 - 2021 The de Young Open, The de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
2019-2020 Flower+Water, Hyatt Place, Pasadena, CA
2019 Winter Solstice, Marin MOCA, Novato, CA
2019 Bay Area Prints!, The Compound Gallery, Oakland, CA
2018 Making a Mark, SRV Conference Center, San Ramon, CA
2018 Surface Tension, Placewares Gallery, Gualala, CA, Solo
2016 - 2017 Abstract Women, SRV Conference Center, San Ramon, CA
2016 Graphic Impulse, Slate Contemporary Gallery, Oakland, CA
2015 Rear Storefront Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Solo
2014 Placewares Gallery, Gualala, CA, Solo
2010 Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA
2009 Placewares Gallery, Gualala, CA
2007 Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA
2005 Sonoma Valley Museum of Art Biennial, Sonoma, CA
2005 TEI Modern, Steamboat Springs, CO
2004 MAC Grant Show, Novato, CA
2003 New House Gallery, Ross, CA
2001 At the Top Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2000 Gallery Elektra, Sausalito, CA
1998 IVA Colors of Summer Show, Corte Madera, CA
1997 IVA Personal Vision Show, Corte Madera, CA
1996 IVA The Creative Eye Show, Corte Madera, CA
1996 At the Top Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
AWARDS
2007 Marin Arts Council Career Grant, San Rafael, CA
2004 Marin Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, San Rafael, CA
1997 Honorable Mention, IVA Personal Vision Show, Corte Madera, CA
REPRESENTATION
Slate Contemporary, 473 25th Street Suite A, Oakland, CA 94612 slateart.net