Susannah Papish
Susannah Papish is a native Southside Chicago-based artist, curator and writer. She has been an active part of the Chicago visual arts community through her studio practice and is also known through her artist-run space boundary, founded in 2017 in the Morgan Park neighborhood in Chicago, where she curates a diverse array of artists local, regional and nationally based artists.
Papish states: My paintings describe line, form, and color through the lens of the prairie. I translate and improvise around the vocabulary of the Midwestern terrain; among other native plants and insects, milkweed, coneflowers, butterflies and wasps serve as source material for the compositions I create. This investigation has led me to consider my materials as an extension of my immediate environment and the disappearing prairie, which is increasingly vanishing due to climate change and human interruption. My latest body of work was executed on paper made from dung of the farm’s two mules and painted with egg tempera paint from duck eggs I sourced from Bray Grove farm, located in central Illinois. This project is my latest attempt to suture the landscape into the work's materials. I find that the imagery of my work allows for slow looking, creating a sense of intimacy for me as the painter and viewer. I am currently engaged in explorations of the landscape and experimentation with a variety of wet media, making drawings that test my ability to invent imagery for a longer duration, deepening my practice and serving to envision my future endeavors.
When not working in the studio, I conduct visual research and investigate specific historical references relevant to my imagery. I am drawn to artwork wherein the botanical forms are nebulous, bordering on abstraction. My interests include the landscape of the prairie and its history, the history of color, paintings of domestic spaces and their historically female-centered characterizations, and learning about the symbolism of plants and flowers with their varied historical and cultural representations. I am currently researching Utopian and DIY communities.
In 2021, I invited artist Melissa Potter to produce a project for Terrain Biennial, Potter designed a native garden on my property using plants suitable for paper-making entitled Invisible Labors. She developed signage to engage the community which has proven to educate my community about the importance of native plants and their uses as carbon remediators and pollinators.
During the Biennial, we began an artist’s book entitled Invisible Labors: Reviving Histories of Women's Land Work in the Blue Island Ridge Communities, Chicago, Illinois about women artists from the Calumet region and their connections to the landscape. These women produced artwork that provides glimpses into the former state of the Calumet region, mostly prairie and wetlands before becoming an industrial hub. Our research includes chapters about Alice D. Kellogg, Kate Starr Kellogg, Louise Barwick, and the Morgan Park Woman’s Club. These stories amplify the significant contributions these women made in the arts, progressive education and first-wave feminism. Along with our writing, there is an interview with Kelly Church, a contemporary Pottawatomi/Ottawa/Ojibwe black ash basket maker whose work is inspired by her lineage. Before 1837, the Calumet Region was home to the Pottawatomi and women in their community created and transmitted the tradition of black ash basket making. Our book was released in 2023. The garden continues to flourish and provide a haven for native plants, birds, butterflies and insects, which are vital in helping to restore ecological balance. Invisible Labors was a project that synthesized my interests in prairie restoration, art-making and writing and has tremendously inspired my studio practice.
Invisible Labors has been acquired by many notable institutions including 6018North, American Art and Portrait Gallery Library a Smithsonian Library, The Art Institute of Chicago (Ryerson and Burnham Libraries), Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Duke University Libraries, The Field Museum, Indiana University (Herron Library), Newberry Library, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Design (Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection) Rhode Island School of Design, (Fleet Library), Ridge Historical Society, Smith College, University of Michigan, University of Illinois and University of Illinois at Chicago, Virginia Commonwealth University, Wellesley and several private collectors
Papish earned her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2002) and a BA in Art History from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1995). Her work has been exhibited at many Chicago-based spaces and she has been a recipient of grants from 3Arts Make A Wave grant, 3AP crowdfunding grant, The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, The Hyde Park Art Center's Artists Run Chicago fund and the Illinois Arts Council. Her work as an artist and curator has been profiled in several publications and her writing has appeared in Hyperallergic, 60 Inches from Center and Bridge Journal. She and Potter have presented Invisible Labors at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Ingersoll Blackwelder House and The Field Museum.
Throughout her 30-year career Papish has juggled life as a single mom while maintaining a studio practice, adjunct teaching, and running a gallery.
Featured Artworks
Invisible Labors, title page, 2023
photo Tom Van Eynde
title page pictured with postcards of two paintings by Susannah Papish
Invisible Labors garden, 2021
The Invisible Labors garden with signage about the plants and purpose of the garden
Untitled, 2024, graphite on paper, 9x12"
Invisible Labors, fold out, 2023
photo Tom Van Eynde
Melissa Potter's handmade burdock paper insert with her recipe for the paper and on the left, detail of a topographical map made by Louise Barwick.
Invisible Labors: Reviving Histories of Women's Land Work in the Blue Island Ridge Communities, Chicago, Illinois, 2023
photo Tom Van Eynde
Invisible Labors full fold-out of the book with a gold cover, 3-color risograph showing the interior of the publication, printed by Jacob Lindgren, designed by Tamara Becerra Valdez
Untitled, 2024, egg tempera on Melissa Potter's handmade dung paper, 10x7"
Egg tempera painting with eggs sourced from Bray Grove Farm, Morris, IL on Melissa Potter's handmade dung paper
Untitled, 2022, watercolor on Andrea Peterson's handmade paper, 6x8"
Andrea Peterson of Hook Pottery Paper is an artist and paper-maker
Untitled, 2022, watercolor on Andrea Peterson's handmade paper, 6x8"
Untitled, 2020, oil on panel, 12x16
Untitled, 2020, oil on panel, 12x16
Susannah Papish has crowd-funded a project with 3AP
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- $6,347 raised of $4,400 goal
- 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
To honor the little-known contributions of Chicago’s early women agricultural and cultural workers, I am collaborating on a new publication entitled Invisible Labors, inspired by a recent research and garden project in the Morgan Park and Beverly neighborhoods formerly known …
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