Artist Statement
“A Feeling Like Chaos” is a two-channel video projection attempting to make sense of a continuum of ecological disaster, disease, fear, and political systems that sanction violence towards its citizens. The characters in the work take on roles such as conjurer, guerilla, or wandering sage. I am invested in tangible interactions between people and how one maintains intimacy during turbulent social climates. “Our deepest knowledge is found in the erotic”, says Audre Lorde in her essay, The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power. For me, the power of eros holds a source of knowledge and intelligence which I see as a way to re-imagine belief systems and has emancipatory potential for those who access it. The video lives within my body of work, “To Sleep With Terra,” along with photo collage and works on paper.
The Emerging Artist Grant would be pivotal to my art practice, as it would allow me to further probe questions concerning intimacy. This fellowship award would also afford me the intellectual and creative space in expanded time that I often do not have in my everyday life as a parent. On a very practical level, it would assist me with research materials and equipment for my practice. This award would directly help me to continue to make meaningful work addressing contemporary issues that are important to me.
CV
Lives and works in Los Angeles
Education
MFA California College of the Arts, San Francisco, 2010
BFA University of Miami, Coral Gables, 1997.
Exhibition Record
2015
To Sleep With Terra, Papillion, Los Angeles
Nadar, Commonwealth & Council, Los Angeles
2014
Dark Desires: The Erotic Lives of Black Female Subjects, curated by crystal am nelson,
Center of Sex & Culture, San Francisco
Video Art Residency, Papillion, Los Angeles
2013
The Familiar Unfamiliar, curated by MHM, Casa Agave, Wonder Valley
Wunderkammer: Minatures & Curiousities, Koplin Del Rio, Los Angeles
2012
Underexposed, curated by Mark S. Greenfield, Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles
Movin’ On Up: Black Art Now, curated by Julian Bermudez, KPCC, Los Angeles
Self-Possessed: Examining Identity in the 21st Century, Koplin Del Rio, Los Angeles
Between Truth and Fiction: Pictorial Narratives, Koplin Del Rio, Los Angeles
Visions from the New California Exhibition, curated by Mark S. Greenfield, 18th
Street Art Center, Santa Monica
Artist Tower of Protest, curated by Cesar Garcia, Los Angeles
2011
CREAM, curated by Kathryn Weller Renfrow, The Performance Art Institute, San Francisco
770 Show, curated by Arden Sherman, Adobe Books, San Francisco
2010
Hangin’ Together, curated by Kerry James Marshall, Koplin Del Rio, Culver City
Everyday Mystics, curated by Kim Anno, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco
Hearsay of the Sun, Queens Nails Projects, San Francisco
MFA Thesis Exhibition, California College of the Arts, San Francisco
bountiful darkness, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco
2009
Immediate Future: The 2009 Murphy and Cadogan Fellowships in the Fine Arts,
San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco.
Residencies
Light Work, 2016 (upcoming)
Center for Photography at Woodstock, 2015
Vermont Studio Center, 2014
Headlands Center for the Arts, 2012
Awards
Visions from the New California, 2012
Murphy & Cadagon Fellowship, 2009
Bibliography
2015
Knight, Christopher. Thwarted Ambition and a state of limbo in work by Suné Woods at Papillion Gallery. 23 October.
Timkin, Kris. The New Explorers: Making Meaning in the 21st Century American Landscape.
2014
Anna Martine Whitehead. A Considered Space: The Work of Suné Woods, Art Practical, 30 January.
2013
crystal am nelson. African American Women and Photography, Oxford African American Studies Center. 31 July.
2010
Leah Ollman. Art Review: Hangin’ Together at Koplin Del Rio. LA Times. 6 August.
Sharon Mizota. Hangin’ Together. ARTnews. October
Lectures
2015
California Institute of the Arts.
2014
Vermont College of Fine Arts.
2012
California College of the Arts.