Susanne Leutenegger

Bio

Susanne was born in Switzerland and graduated, with distinction, from the Crawford College of Art in Cork in 1987. She then established herself as an artist and co-founder of an artists’ collective in Oldenburg, North Germany. She taught Colour Theory and Drawing at Oldenburg University and at Oldenburg Institute of Technology and returned to Cork in 1994. She is a co-founder of Arthaven Gallery, Crosshaven, a former member of Backwater Artists Studios, Cork and served on Backwater’s Board of Directors. She also teaches art, including a course on ‘How to draw on the right side of the brain’. In recent years Susanne has established herself as a Feldenkrais teacher and awareness of movement flows into her daily artistic practice. Susanne’s interest in processes of Embodiment has led her to promoting projects bringing together Visual Arts and Theatre/Moving Arts. Over the years her art work has received international recognition and is included in public and private art collections in Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy. In Ireland her work has been exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, the OPW in Dublin, the Stone Gallery on Pearse Street Dublin, South Tipperary Arts Centre Clonmel, the Signal Art Centre in Bray. In Cork her work has been included in exhibitions at The Crawford Municipal Gallery, University College Cork, the Form Gallery, the Fenton Gallery, the Lavit Gallery, the Doswell Gallery in Rosscarbery, Studio One in Kinsale, CIT Exhibition Centre, Sirius Arts Centre Cobh.

Artist Statement

My work is about the experience of moving, sensing and feeling. An ‘inner knowing’ is the source of an endless stream of images that I translate into visual art. The process is organic, my painting begins with watery surfaces from which life forms emerge and are given structure by bending, twisting and turning lines. It leads me searching for an artistic form which balances solidity and fluidity. I let colours spread their wings and sing a song of lucidity and braveness, light and density. But the process is mysterious, often happening in what seems the untouchable dark. When a painting emerges it may show up with a moment of surprise and gratefulness which is miraculous as it is evasive and orphic.”

Website www.susanneleutenegger.com / www.feldenkraiscork.com

Membership: Backwater Artists Network