Between the Lines is a solo exhibition of new and experimental paintings by Pittsburgh based, Chinese artist, Su Su at the Pittsburgh artist residency and experimental gallery Bunker Projects. Through narrative deconstruction, spontaneity, abstraction, and surrealism, Su Su depicts the tension between globalization and our environment in her work.
This point of view - questioning and reimagining time and space - is shaped by her personal experience of being born in China during the one-child policy and later relocating to the US. Navigating the subtle and significant cultural differences between these two countries inspired the evaluation of popular culture and media in her work. Through hyperrealism and distortion, Su Su’s paintings analyze the politics of representation through imagined worlds that are at once familiar and surreal.
Su Su was born in Beijing, China in 1988 and began painting at the Central Academy of Arts & Design at the age of 12. She further developed herself as a visual artist through her undergraduate studies at the Beijing Dance Academy of Art and Design Program. In 2008, she assisted costume designer ChunQi Han at the Beijing Olympic closing ceremony. After earning her BFA in 2010, she won the China National Scholarship. In 2011, Su Su received a full scholarship to attend graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama, where she completed her MFA in 2015. Although she had a promising future in theater, Susu decided to follow her real passion and dedicate herself full-time to studio painting. Currently, she makes paintings full-time out of her Wilkinsburg-based home-studio.
