sue havens
Untitled, 2023, Acrylic on 150 lb. paper, 22” x 30”
Untitled (Round XXXX), 2023, Acrylic on 150 lb. paper, 22” x 30”
Sue Havens is a multimedia artist who creates large collage relief paintings, works on paper, paper constructions, and ceramic sculpture. Her latest body of work titled Motherboard began by rolling up finished task lists during virtual faculty meetings in the spring of 2020. Other ephemera related to being an artist, mother, and professor was incorporated into the process. The heightened anxiety of the pandemic and the relentless pace of applying for tenure were absorbed into tightly rolled regurgitated balls and began to find their way into paintings. Other material sources include junk mail, supermarket circulars, origami experiments, holiday wrapping paper, fast food bags, report cards, recreation center puzzles, tests, and PTA fliers, finding footing on supports made from Amazon boxes. Paintings on paper also evolved including collaborations with her son. The ceramic works reflect an initial foray into the idea of the urn. The small forms serve as a dry run, perhaps an evolving form of acceptance, with glazing influenced by the sunbaked, layered grids of Florida parking lots and pavers, or perhaps wrapped sarcophagi.
Sue Havens, born 1972 in Rochester, New York, is an artist based in New York and Tampa. Havens received her BFA in Art from The Cooper Union for The Advancement of Science and Art in 1995, and her MFA in painting from The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in 2003. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art at The University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Havens is a 2008 Fellowship recipient in Painting from The New York Foundation for the Arts and a recipient of the 2017 McKnight Junior Faculty Development Fellowship. She has exhibited internationally and nationally in venues such as The Marjorie Barrick Museum, (NV), Galerie Nord, (Berlin), The Museum of Drawings, (Sweden), Helena Anrather, The Painting Center, Regina Rex, Jeff Bailey, Postmasters, Frederich Petzel, Art in General, Momenta Art, Sara Meltzer, OK Harris, Pierogi, The Parlour Bushwick, Underdonk, Park Place Gallery, (New York), Atlanta Contemporary, (GA), Geoffrey Young (MA), and Mindy Solomon (Miami) among many others. Havens authored, designed, and illustrated the book Make Your Own Toys (2010), and Her work was featured in Warhol’s Interview Magazine (2018).
Motherboard (Vertical), 2023, Cardboard, archival glue, paper ephemera, acrylic paint, 84”x55”
