BIO
Conceptual artist, social sculptor, and ecofeminist activist, Susan Leibovitz Steinman produces large-scale green “artscapes” involving diverse stakeholder participation. Exhibited globally, this art models public and personal ecological strategies: organic gardens, slow food, community revitalization, native plants, natural assets conservation and even, green tourism. Concurrently she produces museum and gallery work in multiple media, using salvage and organic materials.
Cofounder of WEAD—Women Environmental Artists Directory (www.weadartists.org), she created and edits its online Magazine. A prominent lecturer and writer, she has contributed to several books, including Suzanne Lacy’s Mapping the Terrain, New Genre Art.
Select credits:
- One of the first artists in residence at Recology San Francisco (aka the SF dump) where she created its 3-acre sculpture park.
- National Park Service, Rivers and Trails, Art & Community Landscapes artist in residence for the Pacific Northwest.
- San Francisco Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize.
- US Dept of Interior Museum, Washington DC, select exhibit.
- Northern CA WCA Lifetime Achievement Award (2011)
- Curator and co-curator of environmental art exhibits.
- Taught at CA State Universities at Monterey Bay and East Bay.
- MFA, cum laude, sculpture. CA College of Arts.
MANDELA ARTSCAPE. 1998-2001. Oakland CA Two acre revitalization prototype with recycle freeway materials & 3,000 native plants. Community participation. Multi-agency and grassroots sponsorship, including CALTRANS & City of Oakland. Private grants . Complex multipart project.
SWEET SURVIVAL 2006-2008 . Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa CA One year outdoor installation re biodiversity; multiple stakeholder participation. Including Santa Rosa Jr. College staff and students & local “apple” groups. Salvaged 11’ hotel doors, soil, native plants, wild & local apple trees.
CARTWHEELS. 2002-2010 Oakland Museum of CA., Sculpture Garden. Multiple exhibitions including Napa Valley Museum 2011. Salvaged shopping cart, bike wheels, large farm cart wheel, river rocks.
ONE STRAW REVOLUTION, 2002. Demonstration biointensive garden in downtown Federal Reserve Bank Plaza, for Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, Eco-Vention exhibit, Cincinnati, OH Curators: Amy Lipton & Sue Spaid. Salvaged local French doors and “3 sisters” plants. From Fukuoka’s garden book.
EOE (EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EATING). 2013. American University Museum, Washington D.C. Detail of larger installation of improvisational wall painting, documentary photo diary, and floor sculptures. Discusses political, social and environmental issues of public projects 1990-2013.