Susmar Pinango — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Sep 19

Sep 19 Susmar Pinango

Biography

Susmar was born in Venezuela (1978), where she got a Master on Fine Arts in 2003 at UNEARTES (former IUESAPAR). Then two years later in 2006, she got her second Master on Visual Arts at the Central University of Venezuela. She has participated in several group exhibitions, shows and biennials. Among them: Raw Art Singapore in Singapore (2011), the Salon of contemporary drawing in Lyon (2015), the Drawing Triennial Tallinn in Lethonie (2015), the Drawing Biennial of Saint Laurent in France (2016).
Since 2017, she moves to Munich (Germany) where she continue to work and take part every year in Stroke Art Fair as well as others group exhibitions around the world.

Artist Statement

The physical properties of paper and the proliferation of intricate details are two elements that appear frequently in my work. Both are sheltered by my real great concern, figurative drawing.
Thus, after a few years of research and exploration at university, where I fluctuated between video, installations and other media, I naturally returned to drawing in India ink at the end of my studies.
So during my stay in Singapore, paper and ink were the only way to express two things: the black and white used almost militantly to counterbalance the colourful world of the beginning of the millennium, and the other as a plastic reflection of an emotional mutation (moving from a country implies changing certain habits) that brought me face to face with the references that my culture had instilled in me.
Then came another geographical change and consequently a chromatic change, this time also accompanied by an experimentation with new media in addition to paper. During four years in France, I was able to approach drawing on sculptures and I was also able to initiate myself to drawing-collage. Thanks to a chance encounter with particular tree barks, I was able to make several portraits which allowed me to deal with themes such as the first great war, registration and fashion.
Now based in Bavaria, drawing continues to question the referent and the context: In figuration many elements can be recognised (an ear is an ear, a flower is a flower, etc.), but the context in which it is placed and the cultural background of the beholder is significantly diverse.
Hence the importance of extracting images from habitual contexts, because from these we propose a way out towards the other figuration, that which only the eye and the brain that receives it are capable of imagining.
Another subject I speak little about, but which is very important, is the waste material from which my work arises: scraps of paper found in the street or in a neighbour's forgotten drawer are just some of my sources of collection. Waste can hide many treasures.
In the line of "fantastic" animals, the series Papers starts from the empty space created voluntarily in scraps of wallpaper. Once the incision was made, the exercise consisted in imagining "what bug" could take shape in there. Always in dialogue with the design of the wallpaper and imagining that from the wall backwards, any animal can exist.

Email unsuspiroenelmar@gmail.com

Website www.susmar.fr

Instagram @unsuspiroenelmar