Suzanne Anan
American, Suzanne Anan is an Award Winning Contemporary Fine Artist. She studied in Italy and New York and exhibits her work internationally in cities from Paris to Tokyo. Anan creates figurative compositions with women as her primary subject. She works in all mediums, but prefers the unpredictability of painting, and the humility and vulnerability required in every stroke of oil onto canvas. Her work is inspired by poetry and literature. Her raw material comes from real life. Her images are gloriously human, revealing the evocative expressions of her thought-provoking subjects.
With over five-thousand entries, Anan was selected as one of the eighty artists to exhibit at the Art Olympia 2015 Biennial, Tokyo, Japan by a panel of New York judges including; Eric Shiner (Director of The Andy Warhol Museum), Kara Vander Weg (Director at Gagosian Gallery New York), Gregory Amenoff (Columbia University) and Brett Littman (Executive director of The Drawing Center in SoHo, New York).
She was selected as one of the fifty artists for inclusion in the Dublin Biennial, an International Contemporary Art Exhibition which took place June 2014 in Dublin, Ireland.
Suzanne achieved international accreditation when she was awarded the Silver Medal and honorary diploma from the Arts-Sciences-Letters Association established in 1915, in recognition for her artistic achievements. The ceremony took place at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand. This achievement followed her participation, December 2013, when her painting titled The Journey was selected for the Juried Annual Art Exhibition with the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA) at the Carrousel du Louvre - Salon Paris, France.
Juror, Daniel Shay of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. presented an award of Merit to Suzanne for her work titled Ain’t I A Woman? in a National Arts Exhibition, titled Strokes of Genius. Her work titled Hard Work Never Killed Anyone was awarded the President’s Award, by juror Shiva Amadi for a National Women’s Arts Exhibition titled From Our Perspective. Suzanne’s work titled The Most Of It, inspired by a poem written by Robert Frost was recognized by David Grant, the former President of the Dodge Poetry Foundation.
Suzanne’s work was selected to exhibit at the ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation in Chicago, as part of the Women’s Caucus for Art, February 2014. United Women selected her artwork titled Ain’t I A Woman Too? for their exhibition titled a Women’s Rights: An Artist’s Perspective and the passage of the ERA. Her painting titled Hard Work Never Killed Anyone was selected for their Best of 2014 WCA Exhibition.
Juror Cora Rosevear, curator Museum of Modern Art, NY selected Anan’s painting titled Women in Blue for an exhibition and book titled Bound for a National Women’s Show. In September 2012, jurors, Dr. Joyce Aiken, Dr. Ruth Weisberg and Patricia Rodriguez, selected her work for inclusion in the Honoring Women’s Rights: Visual Voices Together exhibition held at the National Steinbeck Center Museum.
Insight Gallery presented Suzanne’s artwork titled Ain’t I A Woman? for the Oil Painters of America 22nd Annual National Juried Show 2013. Over 4,000 artists submitted work to the OPA and only 200 were selected to participate in this prestigious show held in Fredericksburg, Texas in May 2013.
In the Fall of 2013, Suzanne received a First Place award for her painting titled The Watchman at the Salmagundi Arts Club in New York, subsequently she received another First Place award in June 2016, this time for her painting titled Labor Day at their annual Nautical Exhibition. In November 2014, The American Artists Professional League of New York awarded Suzanne the Board of Directors Award for Traditional Artistic Merit for her oil painting Aftermath:Hurricane Sandy at the 86th Grand National Exhibition. The exhibition was held at the Salmagundi Arts Club.
Her work was selected March 2012 for the Artour-O Exhibition in Florence, Italy where she exhibited her painting titled Venetian Red. In it, she incorporates images from Piazza San Marco and the Carnival characters from the Commedia Dell’arte. Additionally, a second Venetian scene titled Slowly Like Venice, I am Sinking inspired by a poem written by Gabriel Rosenstock, was selected for Art Basel in Miami, FL, December 2013.
In the Spring of 2012 her painting titled Hard Work Never Killed Anyone was included in a group exhibition at the 80WSE Gallery in New York following a contemporary portrait exhibition in Lecce, Italy also featuring the work of Andy Warhol and Xiao Lu.
Anan’s work was exhibited with forty-six artists from thirty-one countries in an International Art Exhibition in Florence, Italy in November 2010 and then in May 2011 in Ferrara, Italy at the Castello Estense to bring public awareness to Human Rights issues.
Suzanne studied abroad in Venice, Italy in an international program directed by Dr. Angiola Churchill and received her Master’s Degree of Art from New York University and a Bachelors of Fine Art from Kean University. Her artwork has been featured and sold in international exhibitions and in local galleries, donated to several non-profit organizations, and commissioned by large corporations such as Johnson and Johnson and other art institutions such as The Newark Museum. Her work has been added to the Ghost Ranch Museum Collection, the home of Georgia O’Keefe in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the private collection of Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell in Sussex, England.
She is an Artist Member of Oil Painters of America, an elected Fellow Member of American Artists Professional League of NY, The Salmagundi Club of NY, American Women Artists and the Belmar Arts Council.