Susan Loeb

Susan Hightower Loeb is a contemporary watercolorist, using this traditional medium in an unorthodox way to represent the residue of presence. Blurring the boundaries between drawing and painting, her method of mark-making mirrors the social disintegration she is commenting on. Through her paintings she has developed a relationship between absence and presence, between physicality and ephemerality. Her artistic process is equal to the dwindling, dismantling, and degrading social situation in New Orleans. She combines observation, memory, and the presence of the subject in strongly stated images that embody her emotional response to the place she called home.

Susan’s formal art training was classical and traditional.  She was taught to draw and paint from direct observation, using oil paint as her medium.  Her early work was a recording of the beauty in her visual world. Eventually she experienced a restlessness as she noticed problems in her community and searched for ways to deal with them through her art. She returned to school, earning an MFA from Vermont College, Norwich University. It was during this time that she began using photographs as a visual reference for her work.

New Orleans is disappearing. Population shifts to suburbs began the diaspora years ago. Already below sea level, the City sinks more every year. The City and its levees are left unprotected by the disappearance of wetlands. The demolition of public housing mis-placed people. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and its subsequent flooding, further reduced the population. Susan continues to record images of the city and its people. She currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, having moved there after losing her home to flooding following Hurricane Katrina.

Education
2003 | MFA in Visual Art, Vermont College, Norwich University, Montpelier, VT
1965 | BA in Education, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA

Grants and Awards
2002 | First Place, Tulane Review
2000 | Honorable Mention, Associated Women in the Arts Exhibition of Louisiana             Women Artists
1996 | Merit Award, Associated Women in the Arts 8 Exhibition of Louisiana Women             Artists
            Honorable Mention (2), Friends of the Zigler Museum’s Louisiana Juried Art             Competition
            Signature Membership, Louisiana Watercolor Society
1995 | Invitational Symposium on the Work of Winslow Homer, National Gallery of Art,             Washington, D.C.
            Honorable Mention, Louisiana Watercolor Society
1994 | Merit Award, NAEA Membership Show, Electronic Gallery
1993 | National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship: “Major Paintings of Winslow             Homer”, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
1992 | Honorable Mention, Louisiana Watercolor Society

Selected Exhibitions
2010 | Drawings, Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
            Unconventional Portraiture, Portraits as Art by Contemporary Georgia Artists,             Gallery Walk at Terminus 100, Atlanta, GA
2009 | Little Things Mean A Lot, Swan Coach House, Atlanta, GA
            MOCA GA Salutes the TULA Studio Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art of             Georgia, Atlanta, GA
            Local Colour, Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainsville, GA
            Occupation: Artist, Elizabeth Stone Harper Gallery, Clinton, SC
            Emphasis on Realism, Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2008 | New American Paintings, Juried Exhibitions in Print, Vol. 76
            In the Beginning, The Women’s Museum, Dallas, TX
2007 | From Bennett Street to Green Street II, Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainsville, GA
2006 | Bridge Show 2006, The B Complex, Atlanta, GA
             Persephone’s Spring: Return from Exile, group show of New Orleans Women              Artists in the visual medium, Carroll Gallery, Newcomb Art Dept., New Orleans,              LA
             THREE: Karen Edmunds, Cynthia Scott and Susan Hightower Loeb, Isaac              Delgado College Gallery, New Orleans, LA
             Arty Gras: A Celebration of Louisiana Artists, The Warehouse, Washington, DC
2003 | The 8th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2001, 2003 | Group Show, Vermont College, Montpelier, VT
1989-2005 | Faculty Show, Fine Arts Gallery, Metairie Park Country Day School,            Metairie, LA
2000 | Associated Women in the Arts Exhibition of Louisiana Women Artists
            Poydras Home Invitational
1996 | Friends of the Zigler Museum’s Louisiana Juried Art Competition
            Associated Women in the Arts 8 Exhibition of Louisiana Women Artists, State             Archives, Baton Rouge, LA
            Rhode Island School of Design Group Show, Providence, RI
            Louisiana Watercolor Society, 26 Annual International Exhibition, New Orleans,             LA
1995 | LWS, 25 Annual International Exhibition, New Orleans, LAth
             “Art With A Southern Drawl”, Mobile University, Mobile, ALA
             National Art Education Association, Electronic Gallery, Houston, TX
1994 | Associated Women in the Arts 7 Juried Exhibition for Louisiana Women Artiststh
            “Susan Hightower: New Works”, Group Show, Fraga Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1993 | “Art in Different Shapes and Styles”, Fraga Gallery, New Orleans, LA
             Louisiana Competition 1993, Louisiana Arts and Science Center, Baton Rouge,              LA
             LWS, 23 Annual International Exhibition, New Orleans, LArd
1989-1993 | Miniature Invitational, New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, New Orleans,              LA
1992 | New City Diner Group Show, New Orleans, LA
1990 | “Dashka Roth Presents Three Women”, Dashka Roth Gallery, New Orleans, LA
            “Art Attack”, Group Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, Dashka Roth Gallery,             New Orleans, LA

Collections
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
The Waskowmium, Burlington, VT

Publications
2008 | New American Paintings, Vol. 76
2007 | Atlanta Peach magazine, September, 2007,”Brain Candy” by Jonathan Lerner,            p.54