My current body of work is inspired by my observations of roadside fields and abandoned building sites where ghostly husks and wiry entanglements stretch outward like exposed nerves. A past effort to beautify the landscape after slashing through the once serene natural environment is now abandoned and unruly as nature reclaims what was lost.
Using “plant matter”—porcelain casts of buds, twigs, seed heads, and nests—as a personal ceramic vocabulary, I create sculptures from these chaotic parts, using nature as inspiration—rocks, icebergs, and most often, tangled roots, whether exposed or hidden underneath a reconfigured pile. The monochromatic white surface, reminiscent of bleached coral or bone, carries an environmental undertone: a quiet but persistent signal of ecological loss.
Through an examination of the delicate balance between the ephemeral and the eternal within nature, I hope to animate a conversation about what is lost while highlighting the complex beauty that persists.
Artist Statement
Tina has spent a lot of time honing her technique by attending the highest quality workshops and classes whenever possible. She has taken figure drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago, figure sculpture (and many other classes) at the Evanston Art Center, and workshops given by Robin Hopper, Eric Jensen, Jun Kuneko, Paul Soldner, Lana Wilson, Stan Welsh, Benjamin Lira, Martha Russo, Rick Parsons, Trey Hill and Mark Newport. She has been a resident artist at Valor Arts+Media and AIR Vallauris in France. Additionally, she initiated an artist-invite-artist group that has done residencies in Red Lodge, Montana, Curamilla, Chile, and at the University of Montana, Missoula. In 2019, she became a member and serves on the board of directors of Artnauts, a socially and politically based art collective that shows internationally.
Tina is represented by Michael Warren Contemporary in Denver, Colorado.
Tina Suszynski was born in Philadelphia and raised on a barrier island in southern New Jersey where she became a student of a local artist and art educator. This relationship lasted through elementary and high school and allowed her to experiment with media not available in the typical public school art class. Heeding the advice of the adults around her, however, Tina did not pursue an art degree. Instead, she earned a B.A. in International Studies, spending a year studying in Paris where she visited the Louvre every week to soak in as much art as possible. She went on to law school and eventually settled in Chicago after discovering that the beauty of Lake Michigan and its seagulls could mollify her feelings of loss after leaving her island refuge. She eventually stopped practicing law to rededicate herself to the world of art and make more time for family. Tina now lives in the Denver metropolitan area where she is a full-time artist.
Biography
Curriculum Vitae
2007 The Garden Party, Curtis Arts and Humanities Center, Greenwood Village, CO
2007 Impact:20 Years!, Art Students League of Denver, Denver, CO
2007 Games Artists Play, Curtis Arts and Humanities Center, Greenwood Village, CO
2010 Sparkling Universe, Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, Aurora, CO
2011 Painting and Ceramic Exhibition, The Purple Box Annex, Bell Gallery, Denver, CO
2011 Painted Violin, Denver Young Artists Orchestra Association, Denver, CO
2013 Red Rocks Community College, Susan K. Arndt Gallery, Lakewood, CO
2013 Works on Paper, Sculpture in Clay, Caribou Art Gallery, Denver, CO
2013 Abstract Concepts, Caribou Art Gallery, Denver CO
2015 Significant Women Artists, Curtis Arts and Humanities Center, Greenwood Village, CO
2016 Equinox, Sync Gallery, Denver, CO
2016 Valor Resident Artist Exhibition, Valor Arts+Media, Lone Tree, CO
2016 Own an Original, Littleton Museum, Littleton, CO
2017 A.I.R. Vallauris Residency Exhibition, Galerie Aqui Siam Ben, Vallauris, France
2017 Member’s Show 2017, Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO
2019 Invictus, Global Livingston Institute, Women’s Leadership Conference, Entusi, Uganda 2019 The Art Gallery-School of Industrial and Fine Art, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
2019 All Colorado Art Show, Curtis Center for the Arts, Greenwood Village, CO
2019 Turning Points, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
2020 My Country: Dreams and/or Reality, Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia
2020 Pink Progression: Collaborations, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada, CO
2020 The Walls Between Us, Center for Visual Arts, MSU, Denver, CO
2020 Phase Change, Curtis Center for the Arts, Greenwood Village, CO
2021 Uncanny Times: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Seidel City, Boulder, CO
2021 Without Borders, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales and Art Spot Korn, Kyoto, Japan
2021 My City: Life During the Coronavirus, Redline Contemporary Art Center, Denver, CO (virtual exhibition)
2022 Common Nature / Naturaleza Comun, El Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliacion
2022 New Directions, Novi Hram (The New Temple), International Festival Sarajevo Winter
2022 - 2024 Sculpture on the Green 3.0, Museum of Outdoor Arts, Greenwood Village, CO
2023 Remains, Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2023 Common Nature 2/ Naturaleza Comun 2, Artificio Gallery and Alcadia Galeria de Arte, Villaviciencio, Colombia;
2023 Comunidad Uitoto Manuca de la Chorrera Amazonas, La Chorrera, Colombia;
2023 Maloca of Uitoto Tribe - Amazon Rainforest
2023 Women Artists and Poets: A Collaboration, Lone Tree Arts Center, Lone Tree, CO
2023 Fortitude, Solar Panel Project: traveling show -
locations across Ukraine in need of alternative UCB charging stations in areas without power.
2024 Cultivating Peace, Kigali Genocide Museum, Kigali, Rwanda
2024 Thus Far, UV Arts, Derry Londonderry Platform Arts Belfast , Belfast, Ireland
2024 X.iv (Anniversary Exhibition), Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO
2024 Vistas Comunes: de los Andes a las Rocallosas, Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO
2025 - 2026 Naturalia, The Cabinet of Curiosities at the Old Anthropology Museum, The University of Denver, Denver, CO
2025 Art of the State, Arvada Center of the Arts and Humanities, Arvada, CO
2025 Adaptation, Centro de Artes da UFAM, Caua/Manaus, Brazil
2025 DIS(PLACE) LUGAR y DESPLAZAR,La Galeria/Bogata, Bogata Colombia
2025 Shelter, ARK D-O Tito’s Bunker, Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2026 Wounds, Fears and Healing, Novi Hram, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2026 Artnauts: From the Archive, Colorado Mountain College, Aspen, Colorado