Susan Hoffman Fishman

CURRENT AND RECENT Media, Exhibitions, Installations and Residencies

Susan Hoffman Fishman’s The Dead Sea: Then and Now has been included in the global Climate Art Collection

Regenerating Earth, Higgins Art Gallery, West Barnstable, MA. October 17 - November 8, 2024

METAMORPHOSIS: The Changing Landscape, Silvermine Galleries, New Canaan, CT. May 25 - July 11, 2024. Curated by Katherine Fleming, Founder and Director of Bridge Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to fostering collaboration between artists and scientists for environmental advocacy.

Katherine Fleming writes, “This exhibition is not just a showcase of artistic talent; it is a testament to the power of interdisciplinary collaboration to drive meaningful change…From the poignant beauty of endangered ecosystems to the stark realities of urban sprawl, these artworks offer a glimpse into the past, present, and future of our planet. They remind us of our shared responsibility to protect and preserve the diversity of life on Earth.

AWARDED GRAND PRIZE BY THE CURATOR

FLOOD 2.0, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT, April 14 - June 2, 2024. Flood 2.0 is a multi-disciplinary installation by the three-person collective, Water Women, comprised of Krisanne Baker, Susan Hoffman Fishman and Leslie Sobel, which includes 2 video projections; multiple scrolls painted to evoke the motions of flood waters; a make-shift boat, sails, rudder and mast; and the performance of a Greek Chorus telling the story of Noa, the lone female survivor whose name in Hebrew means “action.” Flood 2.0’s goal is to use art, flood mythology and history to inspire community dialogue on local water issues

Video of FLOOD 2.0 at Ely Center Of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT

MEDIA ON FLOOD 2.0

The New Haven Independent, Artists Stare Into the Sun by Brian Slattery, May 16, 2024

“Krisanne Baker, Susan Hoffman Fishman and Leslie Sobel - who make up the Water Women - have stayed true to their name by creating an absorbing, immersive installation using a variety of media including poetry, sound and projections…The overall effect is transporting. The gallery is a place to confront the reality of the changes happening right now and the changes that are coming. It’s a place to feel a sense of what’s been lost already and being lost as we speak. But it also makes room to think about what can be saved, and what can be adapted, to let go of the old ways we used to live and move towards something new.”

The Arts Paper, Water is in the Air, by Kapp Singer, May 10, 2024.

Biophilia: In Excelsis, Yale University Institute of Sacred Music, New Haven, CT, March 27 - May 3,, 2024.

Biophilia in Excelsis is an exhibition that focuses ons the theme of sacred ecosystems, including oceans and forests, and their imminent transformation due to increased global warming. Curated by M. Annenberg, it brings together twenty-two artists who represent different cultural backgrounds, generations and geographic locations, and who explore the concept of Biophilia, the love of life.

Opening Reception and Panel Discussion including Dr. Gavin Schmidt, Director NASA, Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Artists Susan Hoffman Fishman, Eleanor Goldstein and Paul D. Miller, aka DJSpooky. Moderated by M. Annenberg. Live stream of the conversation YouTube.

MEDIA ON BIOPHILIA: IN EXCELSIS

Climate Now, Embracing the Earth, Reflecting the Science by Abby Luby, April 9, 2024.

“Hoffman Fishman’s work in the exhibit “The Earth Is Breaking Beautifully 1: Dead Sea Sinkholes, 2021” (Acrylic, oil pigment, mixed media on paper, 30” x 30”) presents a transformed satellite image of sinkhole pools in startling azure and deep olive surrounded by heavy, undulating flows of natural toned thick pigment. Hoffman Fishman’s intent is to emphasize “the contrast between the horrifying destruction around the Dead Sea and the beauty of that destruction.”

Artists Open Path to Grappling With Climate Change, by Brian Slattery, New Haven Independent, April 2, 2024

Fishman’s language, starting with the title, is jarring; it talks about climate change in a way we’re not used to. Typically we hear about climate change in opposed political terms. On one side are those who deny it’s happening. On the other are those who accept the science but frame it in purely destructive terms. Fishman’s language makes room for another sentiment: a sense of awe.

Exquisite River at Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven,CT. April 14 - June 2, 2024.  a collaborative installation created by members of the Artists Think About Water collective (TAW), meanders through two of the galleries at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art and includes 30 environmental artists/activists in the US and abroad whose work addresses global water issues. Exquisite River is comprised of 19 works of art, each focusing on a particular river, forming one continuous flowing river - a river of images of rivers.

Imagining Water: Myth, Ritual and a Changing Planet, article by Susan Hoffman Fishman published in Image Journal, Number 120, Spring, 2024

13 images from the series In the Beginning There Was Only Water (2019 - 2020) published in the Netherlands in a book by the group, Writers for Justice (Schrijvers voor Gerechtigheid) on climate justice and climate change.

Two-person collaborative exhibition .In the End a Devastating Beauty at Stand4 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. January - February, 2024.

MEDIA ON IN THE END A DEVASTATING BEAUTY

Art Spiel, In the End a Devastating Beauty at Stand4 Gallery, February 8, 2024

Invitational Artist Residency at The Swimming Hole Foundation, Glenford, New York, Oct., 2023.

.April 28 - June 2, 2023.Water Women, three person collaborative.

MEDIA

“Interview With Artist Susan Hoffman Fishman,” Burning Worlds: Climate Change in Art and Literature, a publication of the Chicago Review of Books, March 30, 2023

FLOOD 2.0 at Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT

MAYDAY! EAARTH at Ceres Gallery, NYC, December 13 - 17, 2022.

MEDIA ON MAYDAY! EAARTH

“An NYC Art Exhibit Shows the Beauty and Blight of Earth’s Climate Today,” National Catholic Reporter, December 22, 2022.

Turning Tides at the Target Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Arlington, VA, July 23 - September 11, 2022

MEDIA ON TURNING TIDES

“In the Galleries: Looming Impacts of Climate Change Close to Home”, Washington Post, September 1, 2022

Climate Conversations: All We Can Save at the Nurture Nature Center, Easton, PA. April 6 - June 30, 2022.

MEDIA ON FIVE POINTS RESIDENCY AND CLIMATE CONVERSATIONS: ALL WE CAN SAVE

Art Spiel, Residency at Five Points - Flood 2.0, October 21, 2022

“Conversation with the Nurture Nature Center Arts Director” on WDIY Radio

Art Spiel, Climate Conversations at Easton’s PA Nurture Nature Center, April 6, 2022

Landscapes of Material and Mind at New York Hall of Science, Flushing Meadow -Corona Park, Bronx, New York., February 19 - April 24, 2022. Developed and curated by SciArt initiative.

Curator and Artists’ Talk

In the Beginning There Was Only Water. Solo Exhibition at Five Point Gallery, Torrington, CT, November 12 - December, 19, 2021

MEDIA ON IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS ONLY WATER

Excerpt from Review in Artists and Climate Change

While some of us taught ourselves to bake sourdough bread or to mend socks during the pandemic, the American painter and arts writer Susan Hoffman Fishman plunged herself into her studio and emerged, a year later, with a revised creation story. The result: a magnificent, nearly 50-foot (15 meters) opus entitled In The Beginning There Was Only Water.

In The Beginning There Was Only Water reframes the biblical creation myth – in which “man” was granted “dominion” over all the Earth’s plants and animals – into a new, non-human-centric story.

Comprised of 39 mixed media paintings on paper, each 30 in. x 15 in., the work is hung without any space between the panels. The extended horizontal format of the piece creates a dramatic running narrative that begins approximately 3.8 billion years ago, when our fiery planet started to cool and the rains began to fall, and fall continuously, for centuries – filling up the basins that eventually became the primeval ocean.

In the beginning, there was only water. Not a human being or apple tree in sight.

Joan Sullivan, Artists and Climate Change, November 22, 2021