a non-profit gallery for the visual and performing arts

2833-A Hathaway Rd., Richmond, VA 23225
in the Stratford Hills Shopping Center

Gallery hours beginning Saturday, January 22, 2022:
Noon to 4pm, Tuesday - Sunday
Free and Open to the Public
Purchase artwork from our online store

Susan Iverson
Fleeting (detail)
2015, tapestry woven with wool, mohair and linen
24 inches x 7 ft 10 inches x 2 inches

Susan Iverson
Pulse
2019, tapestry and embroidery, wool, silk & synthetic metallic threads
24 x 31.5 x 3.5 inches

Artist Statement

I have spent a lifetime deeply enmeshed in abstraction - it is the way I see and process the world around me. Architecture and landscape - along with the ways in which they interact - are my primary subjects.

The transitory nature of atmospheric color, and the strong emotions we connect to these fleeting moments of ocular pleasure, inform this body of work. I am especially interested in dawn and dusk, when magical moments of intense color are experienced and remembered, but seldom in their fullness. “Fleeting” allows us a glimpse at a series of atmospheric moments. These glimpses have become tangible through the intense physicality of tapestry. The individual parts of “Fleeting” have dimension, and like the sky there is depth, visually explored by the areas that physically recede. We are allowed to dream of what is behind/beyond the color on the surface. “Lingering” addresses our memory of the day to night transition as we are enveloped by the darkness of night. “Before the Stars” is a more playful reaction to the intensity of atmospheric color and investigates the physical/tangible strength of that color. Most art contains some level of environmental, political or social commentary. My interest in the contemporary connections to color and meaning dictates that these tapestries are grounded in the current discussions of today.

Spanning all of my work is a serious investigation of what it means to weave tapestries in the 21st century - to create an image/object that is built row by row on a grid system. The resulting work must then transcend its process while still respecting it. Materials are selected for their reflective properties - from very matte (wool) to lightly glowing (silk). The wools and silks are hand dyed - or the natural color of the fiber is used. My knowledge of weaving and dyeing informs the work at all levels of development.

Short Biography

Susan Iverson lives and weaves at her studio in rural Virginia near the small town of Montpelier. She is Professor Emerita at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She earned her MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia and a BFA from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and in Canada, Italy, Poland, Australia and Uzbekistan. She is included in many collections including The Art in Embassies Program, Capital One, the Avenir Museum (CO) and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.