Tracy Susheski Tempest in a Glass Central Gallery

Tempest in a Glass marks Canadian artist, Tracy Susheski’s, U.S. solo debut. It is not the first time her work has been seen in Central Gallery, however.

In 2002, Susheski was one of 99+ artists who transcended geographical, political and cultural boundaries to stage 99+ exhibitions throughout the world in a global artists collaboration called The Coaster Project, Destination: The World. After the exhibitions were held, all 10,000+ art works were given away in the guise of “coasters” at bars, cafes and restaurants.

Central Gallery was one of the Coaster Project’s U.S. venues. Following the exhibition, the “coasters’ were distributed at the Amherst Brewing Company.

It has been almost four years since Susheski’s small scaled intricate crocheted work hung in Central Gallery, and a lot can happen in a young artist’s studio over four years. Over time, new influences are felt, new materials introduced, and new forms manifest. Susheski’s early work was based on her interest in exploring different boundaries using a variety of mediums. Fuelled by notions of excessive consumption and compulsively obsessive behaviours, her material driven and process–based projects allowed her work to be all things tactile, sculptural, painterly, site responsive and time based.

Employing materials specifically chosen to smudge clarity and reveal hidden surfaces, her tongue in cheek approach remained deceivingly cheerful and optimistic. Mixtures of tar and wax, sugar and glass, intricately crocheted doilies and painting, along with hazardous warnings and bakery sweets produced the groundwork for her recent interest in nature and science. In a literal sense, Susheski’s work has moved from a concern with what’s under the glass to a concern with what’s in the glass.

Tempest in a Glass is based loosely on a photo shoot Susheski completed at the Banff Centre’s ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’ residency. There, Susheski absorbed herself in producing a body of work made from sugar that she says “ simultaneously represented the sugarcoated rhetoric and the subsequent decay of our health and environment promoted by the bio-agriculture and the bio-chemical industries. “

When asked about the key factors that influenced the present focus of her work, the artist first talks of “being passionately employed in the marketing department of a national distributor of organic produce for four years.” Inevitably, having informative and factual resources at her disposal catapulted her art practice into a social and political direction.

Secondly, Susheski was deeply influenced by a scientific study that observed changes in honeybee behaviours. According to Susheski: “This study concluded that the bees’ inherent physiological and physical make-up had significantly deteriorated while ingesting genetically altered and pesticide-ridden canola pollen over three seasons. Following ‘the canary in a mine’ scenario, if these natural pollinators of our planet are signaling danger, what of our own physiological and physical systems resulting from such a manufactured and polluted environment? “

Susheski’s previous works have also reflected specific food-science issues while referencing a wider mass consumer culture. Susheski explains:” Procedures taken to meticulously and exhaustively execute each of my projects mirrors the bio-chemical industry’s chronic interference with our food supply and systematic pouring of pollutants down our throat.”

racy Susheski grew up in British Columbia and graduated in 1997 from Concordia University with a BFA in studio art and art history.

Her work has been exhibited in various interior and exterior spaces across Canada, parts of the Eastern US and Europe.