Susan Sills

Life size painted wood cutouts posing on the steps of a Brooklyn brownstone

Cutting Loose/ A Walk Through Art History

20 life-size painted wood cut-outs of characters from old master paintings posing in front of a mock-up of the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

"What Do Geishas Have For Lunch?"

Two Life-size painted wood cut-outs of Japanese geishas sitting on a Tatami Mat surrounded by fast food containers. Oil on birch cutouts, fast food containers, tatami mat.

After Picasso/Cubes R Us

$4000

Life-size painted wood cut-out of a mother and child surrounded by boxes painted with fragmented images of the same mother and child.

The Arnolfinis and Us

A life-size painted wood cut out of a man and woman and Renaissance clothing.

Que Sera Seurat?

Life-size painted wood cut outs of a man and woman painted in a design of dots. Behind them another woman picking confetti up off the floor.

After Degas/Woman in a Tub

40" H x 36", $5000.00

Life-size painted wood cut-out of a nude woman In an old-fashioned bathtub.

After Rockwell/Marbles Champ

23" x 21", $3000.00

Life-size painted wood cut-out of a little girl playing marbles.

After Picasso/Maya with a Doll

22" x 18", $3000.00

Life-size painted wood cut-out of a little girl holding a doll.

After Kahlo/ Self Portrait

16" x 11", $2000.00

Life-size painted wood cut-out of the head of Frida Kahlo.

After Gauguin/Nafea Faa Ippipo

30" x 25", $4000.00

Life-size painted wood cut out of a crouching Tahitian woman.

After Vermeer/ Lady in a Red Hat

14" x 13", $2000.00

Life-size painted wood cut out of the head and shoulders of a woman in a red hat.

Artist Statement

My life-size, free-standing cutouts are a whimsical restructuring of art history. By releasing familiar figures from the confinement of the frame and bringing them into real space, I invite viewers to encounter iconic images in new and unexpected ways. Renoir’s dancing couple, Velázquez’s princess, and Gauguin’s Tahitian maiden all take on new meaning when they enter our contemporary world.

Using a jigsaw, I carefully cut fine birch plywood into the shape of each figure and then recreate the original artist’s technique in oil paint, from Van Gogh’s heavy impasto to Ingres’s subtle glazes. Rendered life-size regardless of the scale of the original painting, the figures can interact not only with viewers but also with one another.

Bringing these characters into the 21st century allows new stories and relationships to emerge. Through props, unexpected combinations, wit, and humor, I create art about art while exploring how familiar images can be transformed by context. Some works function simply as visual illusions, inviting the viewer to wonder: Is that really someone over there?

www.susansillscutouts.com | Instagram: @susan_sills

Biography

Susan Sills is a New York–based artist known for her life-size, free-standing cutouts inspired by figures from art history. Working primarily with birch plywood and oil paint, she recreates iconic paintings in three-dimensional form, bringing familiar figures out of the frame and into contemporary spaces.

Sills studied at the Brooklyn Museum School of Art, Boston Museum School of Art, New York University, Queens College, and the Art Students League. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Viridian Artists in New York, Queens College Art Center, the Schacknow Museum of Art, and the Pensacola Museum of Art, as well as group exhibitions in Tokyo, Paris, and museums and galleries across the United States.

Her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Gallery & Studio, Manhattan Arts, Artspeak, and Women Artists News. Sills is President of Viridian Artists Inc. and a member of Artists Equity. Her work is held in corporate and museum collections in the United States and Japan.

Artist's CV