CV/Contact:
info [at] susbatt [dot] comSusanna Battin is an artist geographer who explores the influence of images on human relationships with land. She unpacks how western practices of painting, photography, and cinema can serve to colonize or decolonize spaces. Her practice involves moving-image, cartography, painting, and reading legal documents and nature poems. Battin has exhibited at Armory Center for the Arts, MOCA Tucson, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, and Human Resources. She teaches art at Tohono O’odham Community College.
Solo:
Key Observation Point, Aug 31 - Sept 28, 2018. Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, Los Angeles, CA
Las Vegas Pinks, Dec 15-22, 2015. A402, Calarts, Valencia, CA
Group:
Color Field Paintings, selection from Nine Colors of the West series, Continuous Artifact, Jan 25—Mar 1, 2025. Cur. Maya Hawk, Everybody Gallery, Tucson, AZ
Leave No Trace series and Nine Colors of the West series, Plein Air, July 21 – Dec 10 2023. Cur. Aurora Tang, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
Wings at Work, drawing, poster, river clean-up. In, From, and With: Exploring Collective Survival, Oct 28 - Dec, 30 2022. Cur. Grace Denis, Murmurs, Los Angeles, CA
Leave No Trace (Series), installation, Plein Air, May 13, 2022 - Mar 12, 2023. Cur. Aurora Tang, East Galleries, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ
A River in Eden, screening, Plenary Highlights, Mar 29-31, 2022. Cur. Carmen Bouyer and Patrick Lydon, the Nature of Cities Festival, https://tnoc-festival.com
I Can't See It? It's Not There, installation, Odd Room, Mar 5, 2022. Cur. Sara Hubbs, Millville Studios, Tucson, AZ
Key Observation Points, acrylic and graphite on canvas, Three Years: the Davyd Whaley Foundation, June 8, 2019. Cur. Nick Brown, Castelli Art Space, Culver City, CA
Gas-for-Water, performance and installation, collab. Kate Kendall, Anatomy of Oil, Sept 15-24, 2018. Cur. Ceci Moss, Gas Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Story on an Ocean Floor Border, installation, Making Kin, Aug 26-30, 2018. Cur. Amanda Vincelli, NAVEL, Los Angeles, CA
Stile at Some Point, ink on paper, Sept 4-28, 2018, Made on the Mountain, Phase II Gallery, Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV
Plantago Major, screening, Oct 29, 2017. cur. Mother Ditch, Tiger Strikes Asteroid at Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, CA
My Vote Cunts, printed edition, Amplify & Multiply, Mar 27-April 17, 2017. Cur. Aaron Cohick, Coburn Gallery, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
Sculpture Garden, installation, Jun 22-26, 2016. Exit Interview, Human Resources LA, Los Angeles, CA
¡RIO RIVER!, HD video, SWAY, Jun 9 - Jul 10, 2015. Cur. Nuong Tran, Mt. Fuji, Nara, Japan
Dada d’Adda, installation and island tour, Ecoismi, Jun 7 - Sept 22, 2013. Cur. Ylbert Durishti, Milan, Italy
Window, digital billboard, Dec 2, 2011. Cur. David Morrison, Interstate 15 Southbound, Corona, CA
Honors and residencies:
2023 Artist Research and Development Grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts
2023 stART Grant, Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona
2022 Artist Talk, Plein Air, MOCA, Tucson, AZ
2021 Night Bloom Grant, MOCA Tucson / The Andy Warhol Foundation
2019 The Davyd Whaley Foundation Emerging Artist Grant
2019 Panel Speaker, Unscene LA, Los Angeles Forum for Architecture & Urban Design, Studio MLA, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Collective Member, NAVEL, test site for collective autonomy, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Visiting Artist in Residence, Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Visiting Artist in Residence, Turning Point School, Culver City, CA
2016 Panel Speaker, Annual Conference, The Alliance of Artist Communities, Portland, OR
2015 Artist residency, North Mountain Residency, Shanghai, WV
2014 Artist residency, Art Farm, Marquette, NE
2013 Artist residency, Ecoismi, Cassano d’Adda, Milan, Italy
Education:
2016 MFA Photography and Media, Calarts, Valencia, CA
2010 BFA Theatrical Design and Production, Calarts, Valencia, CA
2008 AAS International Fashion Design, The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY
Press:
‘The Tucson Art Scene Impresses with its People Power’ Natalie Hegert, Southwest Contemporary, 16 Feb 2024
https://southwestcontemporary.com/the-tucson-art-scene-impresses-with-its-people-power/
‘Staying Close to the Land With Plein Air Painting’ AX Mina, Hyperallergic, 18 September 2023 https://hyperallergic.com/845130/staying-close-to-the-land-with-plein-air-painting-armory-center-pasadena/
‘Plein Air Is a Sobering Reminder of Human Impact on the Environment’ Thao Votang, Hyperallergic, 29 August 2022 https://hyperallergic.com/751294/plein-air-is-a-sobering-reminder-of-human-impact-on-the-environment/
‘Collaborations with Nature: A new ‘school’ of art and geography gathers artists for creative fieldwork in the Sonoran Desert’, Kimi Eisele, High Country News, August 2022 Vol. 54 No. 8 https://www.hcn.org/issues/54.8/collaborations-with-nature
‘Review: Plein Air Challenges Assumptions and Aesthetics at MOCA Tucson’ Lynn Trimble, 17 June 2022 https://southwestcontemporary.com/review-plein-air-challenges-assumptions-and-aesthetics-at-moca-tucson/
‘Keys to Observation: To Make a Picture and to Take a Landscape,’ Ryan S. Jeffery, X-TRA, Summer 2019 Vol. 21 No. 4 https://www.x-traonline.org/article/the-keys-to-observation-to-make-a-picture-and-to-take-a-landscape
‘Floating Paintings, Apocalyptic Sunsets, and Windows ‘98: It’s not a dream, it’s Susanna Battin’s Key Observation Points at Los Angeles Contemporary Archive,’ Georgia Lassner, UN-PUB-LISHED, 24 Sept 2018 https://un-pub-lished.com/2018/09/24/susannabattinatlosangelescontemporaryarchive/
‘Four Arts & Culture Organizers Speak Up on the Centrality of Equity in Their Work,’ Bethany Martin-Breen, The Rockefeller Foundation Blog, 22 Mar 2017 https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/four-arts-culture-organizers-speak-centrality-equity/
‘Art, celebrity and how Standing Rock will shape protest in the Trump years,’ Carolina A. Miranda, The Los Angeles Times, 7 Jan 2017 https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-hollywood-values-updates-art-celebrity-and-how-standing-rock-1483650229-htmlstory.html
‘Fine art, writ large: Billboards become gallery space,’ Greg Hanscom, Grist, 10 Dec 2011 https://grist.org/cities/2011-12-09-fine-art-writ-large-billboards-become-gallery-space/
‘Horizon Repair,’ BLDGBLOG, 29 Nov 2011 http://www.bldgblog.com/2011/11/horizon-repair/
‘Window by Susanna Battin ~ 15 Freeway,’ LA TACO, 30 Nov 2011 https://www.lataco.com/susan-battin-window-15-freeway/
Publications:
Featured work, ‘Natureculture’, editor Grace Denis, In, From & With: Exploring Collaborative Survival, Circadian, Summer 2021 https://circadian.co/product/in-from-with-exploring-collaborative-survival/
‘How to View a Landfill’, artist book, edition of 60, printed by Super Hit Press and Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, 2019 https://lacarchive.com/item/how-view-landfill
Featured work, ‘Fieldsweep Recording’, guest editor Ian Garrett, Mammut Magazine: SOLASTALGIA, Fall 2010 http://mammutmagazine.us/download/mammut_issue4_v10_screen.pdf