Aldanondo regularly paints in the public spaces of New York, or in her studio at the New York Academy of Art in TriBeCa, New York.
Her work sells online via Artsy, Artland, RiseArt (London, UK), Wooster & Grand (online, NYC), or Barsky Gallery (Hoboken)
She does not sell her work in the streets, she only paints her work there
About
Susana Aldanondo (b. 1976) is an Argentine-American painter.
Currently completing a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) at the New York Academy of Art, the graduate art school founded by Andy Warhol in Tribeca, New York. She was drawn to the school as her interest in the human form as well as art in advertisement grew stronger as her work interacted with ads throughout the city, as well as through her artistic journey in ceramics, where she explores vulnerability and the emotions associated with it. She's currently also completing an Artist Residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY.
She is a graduate of the Fine Arts Program at The Art Students League of New York, where other artists such as Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keefe, Mark Rothko, Yayoi Kusama, Louise Bourgeoisie, also studied.
There, Aldanondo studied with renowned abstract art masters Larry Poons, Ronnie Landfield, James Little, focusing on color, abstract design ideas, painting and sketching from live models, and for the past two years, also exploring other mediums such as ceramics with Yasumitsu Morito. Aldanondo continues her artistic journey at the league through painting and ceramics.
She won a Merit Scholarship in Abstract Painting offered by The Art Students League and was the winner of the Leonard Rosenfeld Award. She was selected by curators of The Museum of Modern Art in NYC (MoMA) and PS1MoMA Mitra Abbaspour PhD., and James Lee for said scholarship. CLICK HERE to view selection announced on Linea Magazine.
Upon acceptance into the New York Academy of Art's Masters of Fine Arts, she was awarded the Academy Scholar Scholarship by The New York Academy of Art toward the MFA degree and the Susan Wasserstein Patrons Scholar Award.
In past years she also won a juried competition, juried by the Milken Family Foundation: Milken Family Foundation Juried selection juried by Benedict Leca, PH.D., Executive Director at the Redwood Library & Athenaeum, Norah Diedrich, Executive Director at the Newport Art Museum, Qianni Zhu, Mirlen Family Postbaccalaureate Fellow in Museum Practice, Colby College Museum.
Her art career has been reviewed by Forbes Latin-America in Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador and Uruguay, Artland Magazine in Denmark, and by local NYC based contemporary art magazines such as Hyperallergic and WhiteHot Magazine, and in Europe by Artland Magazine.
Susana explores the relationship between place, music, and identity. She can often be found painting nonrepresentational work in the public spaces of the city of New York.
Believing all art forms are connected, Susana finds freedom to explore ideas, and different mediums.
The lines which are prominent in her work may also make reference to her Latin-American culture, specifically related to Argentina, and to the iconic ‘fileteado’ style characteristic of the art and tango connection of Buenos Aires, Argentina; but may also reference the synchronicity of life, the paths we take, or the energy of a given moment or sound. Since studying with James Little, Susana's work has expanded to embrace geometrical abstraction, her inspiration is the city, the subway lines and simplicity through black backgrounds.
She has been subject to collaborations with musicians, composers and scholars of the Juilliard Music School in New York City, Columbia University, later contributing to the National Arts Diversity and Integration Association for their inaugural Art Currents Exhibit that integrated jazz and the visual arts in Harlem, NY where she was invited as the leading visual artist of the exhibit. Her work was selected for the group exhibition “Creating Joy”, featuring works of art inspired by music at the Susquehanna Art Museum.
Other collaborations exploring sound and visual arts include the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the Noa Fort Quartet in an exploration of improvised reactions to music and the visual art forms; Aldanondo painted to live to the music of the musicians and composers who also improvised their music inspired by Aldanondo’s painting; exploring the human experience related to sound in the present moment as part of an exhibition “Sound & Sight: A Duet” presented by The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and curated by NAscentNY in a private event and exhibition in Brooklyn Heights, NY. As part of another exhibition, she was invited to paint to tango by AvanTango and Grammy nominee Pablo Aslan at the Lower East Side, New York.
She collaborated with New York City based tango orchestras such as Suarez-Paz Tango during their celebratory events of the centennial honoring renowned tango composer, Astor Piazzolla, and was a contributing artist during their Tango Gala Benefit at the Consulate of Argentina in New York.
She has also painted live at a Flushing Business Gala at the Sheraton Hotel, in New York, donating her work to support the Flushing BID.
Her work created in the public spaces of New York City, led her to create her series “City As Studio” consisting of some of her best work of nonrepresentational painting painted in streets of the city of New York. Through this experience she also began exploring the human relationship between the art forms and the visual advertisements often found on the walls where she paints, as an added factor to our surroundings and our perceptions of the self, the ephemeral, and the physical spaces around us.
She comes into contact with people from all walks of life: writers, photographers, artists, drunkmen, tourists, drug addicts, models, business people, the homeless, and she values each of those interactions, drawing inspiration from each and giving value to each.
Her work in ceramics offers a deeper understanding of Aldanondo’s personal experience, which she believes can also be representative of the experiences of others as well as the collective experience that some groups experience.
Through ceramics, and through her more recent exploration of figurative work, Aldanondo explores human vulnerability, injustice, despair, hope lost or found, and death.
Aldanondo is a juried member at the historic New York Society of Women Artists, where she also served as Board Member (2020-2024) and Chair of Marketing and Press, as well as managing and curating the organization’s Social Media feed during exhibitions (2020-2024). The organization does not have a curator and does not curate shows, Aldanondo managed and curated only the social media feed.
The organization was recently granted historic status by the State of New York.
SPECIAL FEATURES
CBS - The Equalizer, featuring three works, 2022, curated by a renowned -Hollywood Art Curator & Art Advisor. Four Seasons Hotel & Residencies, Downtown, New York Park Terrace Hotel, Bryant Park, New York
SAMSUNG USA - Finalist, featured on Samsung USA, 2019.
RESIDENCIES & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, New York, NY
Artist in residence
ICELAND - Artist Residency program was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of Iceland. Eyrarbakki, Iceland. Susana was selected to join a group of fellow international artists who came together to explore the sense of time and identity, empathy and compassion. While there, Susana worked closely with the local town, school and with Litla-Hraun the largest prison in Iceland, to help create an art festival bringing together everyone in the community, based on the concepts of empathy and compassion, while learning about social interaction, Icelandic festivities & identity, and the social, justice, and welfare system.
She led a painting workshop for 40-50 inmates. She also led a workshop sharing her experience as an abstract expressionist artist at the local school. She led the art workshop during the art festival at the local prison.
City As Studio - self imposed artist residency/project in New York City (2018 to present)
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Academy Scholar Scholarship by The New York Academy of Art toward the MFA degree
Susan Wasserstein Patron of the Arts Scholar Award
New York Foundation for the Arts Grant
Merit Scholarship Award Winner in Abstract Painting - The Art Students League of New York
The Leonard Rosenfeld Award in Abstract Painting- through the generosity of the Leonard Rosenfeld Fund and Leonard Rosenfeld’s wife, through The Art Students League of New York selected by jurors of The Museum of Modern Art in NYC (MoMA) for said scholarship.
James Little Student Exhibition - Blue Dot Winner, Honorable Mention
Larry Poons Student Exhibition - Red Dot winner * by professors & peers.
Hamptons Fine Art Fair Chief Curator’s Best In Booth Award
Hamptons Fine Art Fair Chief Curator’s Picks Award
Best in Show - London, UK
National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) Abstract Painting Juried Award Winner
Jackson’s Painting Prize (London, UK) Long-listed
Samsung USA - Featured artist
ArtScope Magazine - Winner.
Juried selection by The Milken Family Foundation: Milken Family Foundation Juried selection juried by Benedict Leca, PH.D., Executive Director, Redwood Library & Athenaeum, Norah Diedrich, Executive Director, Newport Art Museum, Qianni Zhu, Mirlen Family Postbaccalaureate Fellow in Museum Practice, Colby
College Museum
Artweek - London, UK Best Art Award Winner
COLLECTIONS
Permanent collection at The Art Students League of New York, curated by Ksenia Nouril, PhD. and former curator at MoMA, NYC. Balliro Family Collection at Hamptons, NY, P. Hall Family Collection, London, UK, Lubeski Collection, Iceland, Iris Apfel, New York, NY
Private Collections in New York City, Westchester, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, Madrid Spain, France, London UK, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Australia, and Brazil.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Permanent Collection at The Art Students League of New York
Permanent Collection at the Consulate of Argentina, New York, New York
Southern Vermont Medical Center, Vermont
MEMBERSHIPS
THE ART STUDENTS LEAGUE OF NEW YORK ARTISTS OF RONNIE LANDFIELD Select group of artists who are current and/or former students of Ronnie Landfield.
New York Society of Women Artists
SPEAKING PRESENTATIONS
Iceland - Presented the project she worked on while in Eyrarbakki, presenting the Art Exhibition which consisted of paintings on paper made by the inmates at the local prison and also by the school children at the local school. Through the power of art, these very different groups of creators came together. The works presented shed light on the many similarities in inspiration found in the works, which spoke of hopes, dreams for the future, a love for family and love of the arts. The exhibition was presented to the public at the local community center.
EDUCATION
MFA - New York Academy of Art, Tribeca, New York
Fine Arts Diploma in Painting - The Art Students League of New York - Fine Arts Diploma (2019-2023) Studied with renowned art masters
Parsons School of Design - Graphic Design & Marketing Certificates, New York, New York MoMA NYC - History of Abstract Art & Art and Identity in Society, studied with Lisa Mazzola.
Nord University, Norway- BA - International Relations with a focus on Indigenous People's Studies and nations of the High North Cornell University - Certificate: Urban Ecology & Climate Change Certificates. Hunter College - New York, New York, Communications & Art History, Translation & Interpretation
HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
Metropolitan Museum of Art - Library Archives in lieu of Artist Residency (forthcoming 2024)
Smithsonian Museum of American Art - American Artists Archives (forthcoming in 2025)
New York Society of Women Artists Historical Archives.
THE ART STUDENTS LEAGUE OF NEW YORK - PERMANENT COLLECTION ARCHIVES & EXHIBITION ARCHIVES
TALLER BORICUA ARCHIVES - EAST HARLEM, NEW YORK
Painting Music: painting to live tango by renowned Grammy nominated musician Pablo Aslan and AvanTango.
Lower East Side, NYC.