Suzannah Wainhouse | Mute Swan

February 23 – March 25, 2023

Text by Stella Schnabel

Sometimes it’s difficult to make an egg in the morning. Sometimes it’s tiresome to have the daily routine as a mother. I think we all feel that way sometimes, at least I do. Sometimes we don’t feel like getting out of bed. But there are seeds that we plant, and they need our service. Servicing our seeds. Servicing our desires and our contradictions. These paintings contain contradictions that seem to bite at you. That bite at the very existence of what is possible and what is made possible by us. We have to make that thing possible. The elated movement that happens with a mark continues to jab at us in our sleep. Looking through Suzannah's sigils gives me the feeling that there is a lot to question at first glance. A figure we recognize and then a movement in it that has more meaning than anything we can give name to.

Giving names to things seems to lessen the thing, but that is the way we communicate these days. Through language of identity. We all know too much about that. Identity. There are nameless figures that are pulled out in her pictures. Zeus and Herculean ideas. But then again, a mark of white appears to be a ghost you see. I had to name it. Sadly. That passes us. They crumble on our heads asking for more. And more of what? What is it that we search for to make us whole? A partner, a baby, an image of what feels familiar. These feelings have a stake in the game of marks. If there are marks that make us want to see more, well then I hope we get to battle with the marks and find what it is we are trying to galvanize with.

It is the certainty of knowing what we like and what we don’t. There are things in these works that I don’t particularly like, but I keep wanting to know why I don’t like them. When something gives me a question I get very, very attracted, and it’s a long lasting attraction. It’s not just a pretty face. It’s a horrible face that keeps scratching at me and will never go away, and then when I give it the time that is necessary, it stops scratching. Those itches seem to dwindle when I look at these works, coming from a tumble of life. Marks never felt so good as when looking at the things we love – Caravaggio, Bacon, Palermo, some Ernst-esque traits. We look for those symbols but know that we can create our own language of symbols, too.

What a gift to have a new deck of language, somewhat familiar and distant at the same time. I keep feeling that itch when I see these paintings. So messy and ugly, decidedly spiteful color choice – yet so beautiful and all encompassing

I’ll think about an image in a few days and have the answer to some other question in my life. I think that makes for a very good painting.

Suzannah Wainhouse (b. 1983, Vermont) is an artist who lives and works in Sagaponack, NY. She graduated from Pratt Institute in 2005 (BA). Wainhouse produces works on paper and canvas that reflect upon the natural world and consciousness. Greatly influenced by the connection and relationship between humans and animals, her paintings are infused with a mythological narrative that binds the human, animal, and anthropomorphic worlds. The imagery and ideas of the ‘Other’ and the ‘Alien’ recur throughout her work, as well as the idea of finding the center or the edge via mystical perspectives. 

Wainhouse's recent group shows include AB NY Gallery (East Hampton, NY) and Julien Cadet Gallery (Paris, France), among others. She has a solo presentation with NBB Gallery (Brussels, Belgium) in January 2023. This is her first solo presentation in New York with Sargent’s Daughters. 

Mute Swan continues in UNDERGROUND, the lower level of Sargent’s Daughters.

Press

Artforum MUST SEE | February 28, 2023