Susan
Tabachnick
Susan
Tabachnick
Susan Tabachnick never thought of herself as an artist. She can’t draw or paint. But in 2007 things changed. First she was diagnosed with a chronic illness. She sold her house and moved into a small apartment. Then she lost her job. Susan describes it as the best year ever.
Susan left behind a stressful job and the responsibilities of owning an historic home. Instead, she suddenly had the time to discover what she wanted to do and found herself collecting industrial objects that interested her, beginning the start of a rich period of creativity.
It all began when she found a round, metal object on the ground -- brought it home and put it on the windowsill above the kitchen sink. Next she acquired a copper toilet float which nestled perfectly on the other item. Susan had no idea what she was doing, yet the practice of collecting items and assembling them grew into the Lost and Found Circus, a 40-plus piece collection of small sculptures which was of interest to the historic Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, CT and shown there in 2014.
Susan is self-taught.
Susan Tabachnick’s Magic Tricks
It’s not quite Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell, but Susan Tabachnick’s latest work is both similar and remarkable in that it takes once-discarded detritus of industry and science, and reassembles often disparate elements into a new, poetic, and cohesive reality. Heavenly…in a way…
She illuminates obscure and forgotten traits of various elements to create a new union – a new meaning for them – in an elegant format of precision and grace. There is a blending and integration of these oddly connected gadgets that are brought together under her skillful assemblage in order to “form a more perfect union.”
Tabachnick’s method is her madness: she somehow envisions a new vitality for these once forgotten utensils. Her video, Object Memory, is an object lesson itself for the viewer. We see rusted train tracks, old bent metal parts, once-useful colorful pen holders and unnamed whatchamacallits come alive in Tabachnick’s talented hands. Without actually changing or reshaping these tools and gizmos she infuses them with new heart and new meaning, often by means of her thoughtful placement and quirky design.
It’s a bit of magic done through sleight-of-hand and mind; and artist’s way of seeing anew. This work is not to be missed.
—Herm Freeman, Westport, CT | June 2024
Education
B.S. Southern Connecticut State College, New Haven, CT
Private lessons with master weaver Lucille Landis
Solo Exhibitions
2020: Artifacts, DaSilva Gallery, New Haven, CT
2019: A Pop of Color, Downtown Special Services District, Bridgeport, CT
2019: Artifacts, River Road Gallery, Wilton, CT
2015: Assemblages, Pious Bird of Good Omen, Bridgeport, CT
2015: Music - Art - Nature, Treetops Chamber Music Society, Stamford, CT
2014: The Lost & Found Circus: A Creative Balancing Act, The Barnum Museum, Bridgeport, CT
2012: Stuff, Pious Bird of Good Omen, Fairfield, CT
Group Exhibitions
2024: Members Exhibition, Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center, Nyack, NY
2024: Object Memory, Crown Gallery, Metro Art Studios, Bridgeport, CT
2021: 77th Annual Connecticut Artists Juried Exhibition, Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT
2020: USPS Art Project, InLiquid, Philadelphia, PA
2020: USPS Art Project, Eli Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT
2020: Small is the New Big, Honorable Mention, Rene Soto Gallery, Norwalk, CT
2019: SAMESEX, City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT
2017: 305: Revitalized, 305 Knowlton, Bridgeport, CT
2016: Lost + Found, 2016 Annual Exhibition, LAA, Stamford, CT. Juror: Larissa Bailiff, MOMA, NYC
2016: Parts is Parts: Assemblage & Collage, The Schelfhaudt Gallery, University of Bridgeport, CT
2015: On and Off the Wall, M.A.W. Fairfield Group Show, Fairfield Theatre Company, Fairfield, CT
2015: West Cove Gallery, West Haven, CT
2011: Grand Opening, City Lights West, Westport, CT
2010: Recycled, City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT
2009: 4th Annual Members’ Show, City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT
2009: This + That, Art of Collage, Assemblage & Found Objects, City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT