Susan Chrysler White’s paintings function on various levels while referencing the act of painting. They are executed by pouring and pressing without brushes, yet appear at first glance to be mechanically generated. The artist is interested in the duality between appearance and process. Her most recent paintings have a dense, drawn, almost woven element that recalls both crocheted materials and a diagrammatic metaphysical drawing. The space is the constantly evolving aspect of the work–in some paintings, it sits flat, sucking all air from the space; in others the flatness ruptures, opening up small lacunae.

In recent paintings, Chrysler White has explored the use of a bilateral Rorschach-like image. Using enamel paints as her primary medium, she creates a vocabulary of small, organically-inspired figures. Presented on a painted field, these emblems are at once anatomical and spiritual as they slip back and forth between references to the body and images of Buddhas and Virgins of Guadalupe. The images can also become botanical, insect-like or mutations of some hybrid futuristic organism. These equivocal figures mark the precarious intersection between her intentions and the unique constellation of responses brought to the work by the viewer. The controlling objective for her work is to press further into the exploration of the boundaries between the decorative impulse and the much darker, emotional, philosophical sources. She has been exploring a synthetic, high gloss, vibrating, densely packed surface in which the color functions as a seductive, alluring phenomenon that pulls you into imagery that houses the darker stuff. The color connects clearly with particular cultural phenomena: 60’s psychedelia, bad taste, tropical phantasmagoria and further to international pop cultural design.

Chrysler-White has received fellowships and awards from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Fabric Workshop, Yaddo, and a Philadelphia Museum of Art Purchase Award. Her work has been included in shows at: The Drawing Center, NY; Fleisher Art Memorial, PA; Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN; Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; Albright College Gallery, PA; Carnegie Mellon Art Gallery, PA; High Museum, GA: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, MA; University of Iowa Museum of Art, IA; The Weatherspoon Gallery, NC.