Susan Shup is an American artist based in Paris. She moved to Paris in the 1980’s and soon began exhibiting with the Galerie George Lavrov who showed her mostly large monochromatic landscapes on un-stretched canvas, at his Paris gallery but also at FIAC, the London Art Fair, and the Basel Art Fair. Shup was also included in a show on Swiss collections at the Basel Museum für Gegenwartskunst - her first museum show. In 1989 she was invited to have a one woman show at the Belgian gallery Le Cirque Divers, a gallery showing many important european fluxus and pataphysics artists. The experience was a turning point for her. She began taking more seriously the writing, taping, and videos that she had always casually done, and started to create work of a more conceptual, humorous nature, though maintaining her American abstract expressionist and color field roots in her painting.
In the 1990’s she began showing regularly with Marie Victoire Poliakoff at the Galerie Pixi in Paris, she also had a solo show at ARTO in Aubervilliers and was included in many group shows including at the Musée d’Art Modern de Liège, at the Campredon Art et Culture, L’Isle-sur-la Sorgue, the Galerie Quinze, Paris and the Galerie du Collège Marcel Duchamp in Chateauroux and at the Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art Gallery, Boston. By the end of the 90's, language and figuration both became important in her painting. She began making works on paper and large scale figurative paintings, homages to the woman artist and commentary on a certain portrayal of women in popular media.
After her show ARTIST GIRLS at the PERIPHERIE gallery in Malakoff, Paris, Shup was commissioned by the french fashion house Hermes to create a catalogue based on this work. She also invited by Jean Noel Flammarion Productions to create several series of artists editions (glasses, bags, jewelry,T-shirts). These experiences sparked a new interest in design and media, and she has since collaborated with fashion designers, interior designers and communications and media firms. She has collaborated with the Dubai based couture company OTT since 2010 and her textiles have been favorites with music and television personalities, worn at award ceremonies, on tv shows and seen in numerous fashion magazines and blogs. In 1996 (with a cd in 2000) Shup recorded YOU ARE GREAT, a one take 10 minute automatic audio piece, exploring the world of compliments, humorously contrasting the sincere, the superficial and the seductive. A YOU ARE GREAT installation was shown at MISS CHINA in Paris and the Bernard Toale gallery in Boston, sold at Colette, Paris and Printed Matter, NYC. It received press coverage in magazines and newspapers like ELLE, MAISON FRANCAISE, LE FIGARO and THE INDEPENDANT ON SUNDAY. Shup was interviewed by the BBC, and performed YOU ARE GREAT on the french tv network TF1.
Her video performances of the late 90's and early 2000's, LE SHUPPING, LOOKING AT ART and LIVING WITH ART explored the place of the artist in her studio, the SHUPSHOP, and the art world. LIVING WITH ART, a series of performances with a fake tv documentary show format attempts to explain contemporary ART topics, such as LAND ART, BODY ART and ART ROCK to the home audience. LIVING WITH ART has been shown in galleries, museums, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, art schools, and film festivals. Since 2004 Shup’s work has been and shown regularly by the London curator and gallerist, Rabih Hage and with the Louis Gendre Gallery in Chamalières since 2014. Her paintings are included in a number of notable private and corporate Collections including: Fidelity Investments, MacAndrews & Forbes, Vivendi Universal, Gerhard Nikles Collection, Basel, DQN Global Capital Partners LLP, Danforth Museum, Framingham, Mass.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023 SUSAN SHUP, I COLLECT LANGUAGE, Galerie Louis Gendre, Chamalières
2020 LE RENDEZ-VOUS DE TROIS GALERIES, Espace Dupuis, Paris
2020 SOCIAL MEDIA, Berlin Collective
2019 VENEZ FETER LE PRINTEMPS, Galerie Pixi, Paris
2018 SUITE SWEET, Susan Shup, Salon Zurcher, NY
2018 WHY NOT?, Susan Shup, Galérie Louis Gendre, Chamalières
2018 SHUP SHOUT OUT, Galérie Louis Gendre, VOLTA NY
2018 'LE JARDIN DU PARADOX - REGARDS SUR LE CIRQUE DIVERS À LIÈGE', Musée de la Vie Wallonne, Liège, Belgium
2018 'THE IDIOSYNCRATIC PENCIL’ Elizabeth Stone Harper Gallery, Harper Center for the Arts, Presbyterian College, SC
2016 'SUSAN SHUP, FROM FREEFORM TO CONTROLLED AND BACK', Galérie Louis Gendre, Chamalières.
2015 ‘ON SITE IN 16 CITIES’, a group exhibition curated by the Berlin Collective, Cheri, Harlem, New York.
2015 'Une Galérie, un regard – Part III', Galerie Pixi, Paris.
2014 ‘SHUP-UP’ (I love Paris in the springtime)” Galerie Louis Gendre, Paris.
2013 ‘VINTAGE’, Group Show, Michael Woolworth, Paris; ‘REMADE’; G Design, Cape Cod.
2012 'Decorex London', Susan Shup paintings at Rabih Hage, Group Show, Rabih Hage, London.
2011 'Back in Belgium Baby', paintings and videos by Susan Shup, Libraire Saint Hubert, Bruxelles, Belgium, 'Ten Years of Collecting', Rabih Hage Gallery, London, Cimaise Jacques Lizène, Passage de Retz, Paris, ACRIA, Miami Basel.
2010 'Dialogue d'Artistes Blanc sur Fond Blanc', Galerie Pixi, Marie Victoire Poliakoff, Paris, 'Mode de Vie+Légèrté', Galerie Celal, Paris.
2009 ‘Painting Out Loud’, New Work by Susan Shup, Rabih Hage. London, ‘Living with Collectible Design’, London, Rabih Hage, Rabih Hage, London, Muhka, Anvers, Le(s) moi(s) de Lizène.
2008 SLICK art fair, Miss China Beauty, FIAC, Paris, cimaise Jacques Lizène, Galerie Nadia Vilène, videos: LIVING WITH ART, cimaise Jacques Lizène, Traces du Sacré, Centre Georges Pompidou, Slick Dessin, Paris.
2007 Miss China Beauty, Select 01 - Format A4 in Progress, Miss China Beauty, Select 02 - La mise à poil, Slick art fair, Galerie Pixi, Paris.
2006 Ventilo Galerie, Paris, Susan Shup, « Filles et Garçons ».
2005 Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art Gallery, Boston, Mass., Susan Shup: Les Sirènes, Rabih Hage, London, Two
Americans in London; “Land Art” video by Susan Shup, Woodshole Film Festival.
2004 Group, Rabih Hage, London.
2003 La Périphérie, Malakoff , 2 Femmes: Peintures et Objets Dérivés, Black Block, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, You are Great, Le Bon Marché, Paris, Boutique Noel.
2002 Parcours Saint Germain des Près, Dressing Room with Video Sales Artist/Artist Women, Fontenay Sous Bois, Je vois ce que c'est, House and Garden Fair, London, Rabih Hage, London.
2001 La Périphérie, Malakoff, Love Me/Love Me, Art Concept, Paris, Cimaise Lizène.
2000 La Périphérie, Malakoff, Artist Girl(s), paintings and drawings by Susan Shup, L’Euro-Fête, Ville de Liège, World Wild Flags, Drapeaux d’Artistes, Le Lineaire, Romans, Camping 2000, La Périphérie, Malakoff, Mode d’Emploi.
1999 Le Cirque Divers, Liège, Belgique.
1998 Judy Ann Goldman Gallery, Boston, Kind of Blue, Centre D’Art Contemporain de Rueil-Malmaison, États de Rire, Espace Renaudie, Aubervilliers, Ephémeres I, Videos D’Artistes.
1997 Colette, Paris, You Are Great, et Stupid Jerk.
1996 Judy Ann Goldman Gallery, Boston, Summer Idylls.
1995 Musée D’Art Moderne de Liège, Belgique, Retrospective des Artistes du Cirque Divers, Arto, Aubervilliers, Susan Shup Solo.
1994 Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, Susan Shup, You Are Great!, Galerie du Collège Marcel Duchamp, Chateauroux, Castelroussine, Galerie 15, Paris, Chaises = Sculptures, Astycom, Paris, EST.
1993 Centre Wallon de L’Art Contemporain, La Chataigneraie, Belgique, Tels Qu’elles, les Femmes de la Galerie du Cirque Divers, Galerie Pixi, Paris.
