'The Way of the Wild : Charcoal Landscapes by Sue Bryan'
In the presence of Bryan's work, one feels like a wanderer who has just stopped to consider his surroundings. These aren’t just scenes—they are moments.
Read the full article written by Carrie Haddad Gallery at Artsy.net
'DRAWN’, A Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Drawing, Manifest Gallery, 2014
‘‘I found it hard not to be particularly drawn to works that shed some light on what drawing could and could not do. Sue Bryan’s “The Garden of the Golden Apples” (2013) had the look of a timeless 19th century landscape, mixing the mysterious and the mundane. Despite the title, there is a weediness and run-down quality to everything we see, and a sense that this garden’s well-tended days are long past. The trees are bare and a handful of birds are wheeling—or being wheeled—through a bleak and windy sky. In the foreground are a few bright spots—presumably the golden apples—scattered and awaiting discovery in the grass. I loved the way Bryan used the mark of her pencil, putting together a landscape marked by highly linear forms with hardly a line to be found: everything was shape and shadow, made by an endlessly unraveling thread of marks.”
From a review by Jonathan Kamholtz of ‘DRAWN’, published in AEQAI, 2014
'REGARDING THE SUBLIME', An Invitational Exhibition and Symposium, North Park University, Chicago, October 2014
"Materials
Charcoal and Carbon on Arches
The toothy surface catches the carbon and charcoal. These remains cling, drawing everything in this personal vista toward evening light, Inness’ middle tint. The paper lay dormant until this all over haze set it. It waited to glow. Now it blinks back at us.
Remains
Sue Bryan’s earlier work was crisply defined and graphic. She worked with a variety of media on watercolor paper. The images exude control. The viewer looks at the figures from another place and time. We are placed at a distance.
What a shift to these works made with ashes, the char of organic matter. The materials call attention both to the surface of the work and its making and at the same time draw us into the pictured space. We move between on and in, navigating the tactile made-ness of the work and the hushed landscape before us.
It seems likely that the shift in making resulted from conceptual necessity. Bryan shared with me that her work attempts remembrance and in turn speaks to mortality.
When we journey on Bryan’s ground we travel through the tangle and thicket, or on shifting sandy footing, shrubs and marsh grass between us and the horizon. Her artistic practice repeatedly acknowledges the edges of knowing and celebrates with wonder the unknown. We are left only with the struggle to be present."
Excerpt from " The Subtle Sublime : A response to Sue Bryan’s drawing 'A Day of Dark Trees' " by Professor Kelly Vanderbrug, North Park University, Chicago, IL