Worldwide Tree of Life, hand-felted fiber, mixed media
Woman is Tree of the Field #2, hand-felted fiber, natural materials
Woman is a Tree of the Field #1, hand-felted fiber, natural materials
Autumn Cascade, hand-felted fiber, natural materials
Nurturing Mother Tree, hand-felted fiber
Mother Tree Life Flow
Mother Tree with Womb, hand-felted fiber, natural materials
Mother Tree, alpaca canvas, hand-felted fiber
Kabbalah Tree of Life, alpaca: hand-felted fibe
Fiber and Field 1
STATEMENT
Trees, mystical and actual, inspired my new body of work. I studied the Kabbalah Tree of Life from my own Jewish heritage and discovered that this ancient idea is still alive in cultures and religions around the world. I read the work of scientists who, in our day, are uncovering trees’ behavior and wisdom, from which we have much to learn. I was especially fascinated by Suzanne Simard’s Finding the Mother Tree. All of this guided my heart and my hands as I worked with natural materials — wool from sheep and alpacas and bark and branches from trees — to create in the studio.
Susan Kaplow
545 West 111th St. #8E
New York, New York 10025
website: www.susankaplow.com
Email: sbkaplow@gmail.com
Profile:
| Susan Kaplow is a visual artist working in fiber, clay and mixed media. She has made art related to illness and healing, women’s wisdom, lesbian and gay issues, torah and transformation. She brings to her art practice 30 years experience as a psychotherapist, ongoing study of Jewish spirituality and deep immersion in nature. |
Recent Exhibitions:
| 2024 | Sex:Jewish Positions, Jewish Museums in Berlin and Amsterdam Bridging Chasms and Radical Joy, two group shows at Riverfront Gallery, Yonkers, NY. |
| 2023 | Tenuous Threads, Atlantic Gallery, NYC, group show Black and White Thinking, Ceres Gallery, group show Art=Healing, group show, Emerge Gallery, Saugerties, NY |
| 2022 | Heartlines, solo show, Ceres Gallery Group show, Koslowe Gallery, Mamaroneck, NY |
| 2021 | Beyond the Narrow Place, virtual group show, Temple Emanuel Members Showcase, Long Island City Artists, Plaxall Gallery |
| 2020 | Life As It Is Now, Members Show, Ceres Gallery |
| 2019 | Embody, solo show, Ceres Gallery |
| 2017 | Red, group show, Textile Study Group of NY, NOHO Gallery Vulvacular, co-curated group show, Ceres Gallery, New York City |
| 2017 | Out of Bounds, Solo Show, Ceres Gallery, New York City |
| 2016 | Transformations, Bernard Museum of Judaica, New York City |
| 2015 | Summer Seranade, Ceres Gallery, New York City |
| 2015 | Small Works, National Association of Women Artists, New York City |
| 2015 | Art and Healing, Lowy-Winkler Rare Book Center, American Jewish University, Los Angeles |
| 2014 | Pirkei Avot ve Imahot, Ethics of the Fathers and Mothers, Lowy-Winkler Family Rare Book Center, American Jewish University, Los Angeles |
| 2014 | The Jewish Art of Healing, Shomrei Emunah, Montclair, NJ |
| 2013 | The Seventh Day: Revisiting Shabbat, HUC-JIR Museum, NYC |
| 2013 | The Sexuality Spectrum, Sherwin-Miller Museum of Jewish Art, Tulsa, OK |
| 2013 | The Sexuality Spectrum, HUC-JIR Museum, NYC |
| 2012 | The Sexuality Spectrum, HUC-JIR Museum, NYC |
Print:
| 2019 | The Language of Making, tsgny, 2019, book featuring my art |
| “The Blessing of Blessings” and other blog posts, appliedjewishspirituality.org/blog Hard Blessings: Jewish Ways Through Illness. Book of stories of illness and healing enhanced by Kaplow’s artwor | |
| 2013 | An Artists Beit Midrash, CCAR, The Reform Jewish Quarterly |
| 2013 | Sexuality Spectrum Exhibit of Jewish Art Starts Discussion at Sherwin Miller, James D. Watts, Tulsa World |
| 2012 | Hard Blessings: Jewish Ways Through Illness, Susan Kaplow Book of stories of illness and healing enhanced by Kaplow’s artwork |
| 2012 | Pirkei Imahot, Lillith Magazine |
| 2012 | An Unorthodox Guide to Sexuality, Debra Nussbaum Cohen, Jewish Daily Forward |
| 1999 | Coming Out at Auschwitz, in Beginning with a Broken Heart, Dresser and Cunningham |
| 1997 | Oswiecim Means Enlightenment, Turning Whee |