Suzanne Nacha

Toronto artist Suzanne Nacha works “in and against” painting. Her work makes connections between a human experience of the landscape that surrounds us and the earth as a physical body, endlessly evolving. She has exhibited widely in Toronto and across Canada, and internationally in Germany and the United States. With undergraduate degrees in Geology and Fine art and an MFA from York University, Nacha has taught in the Fine Art departments of OCAD, Sheridan/ UTM and York University, and for the past fifteen years has worked in the mining industry. During her residency at Open Studio, Nacha worked with the technical collaboration of artist Daryl Vocat, to create screenprinted monoprints, using imagery abstracted from her paintings of underground spaces such as catacombs and tunnels.

An invitation to participate in the Visiting Artist Program at Open Studio provided me the opportunity to rethink my image making process. Unfamiliar with sceenprinting, I was surprised to find that the planning and preparation I so often associated with the medium, could as easily give way to such unexpected results. As a painter involved in creating imagery that hovers between representation and abstraction, I saw this experimental process as an invaluable way for me to rid my work of ‘unnecessary visual baggage.’ Moving forward, I hope to utilize the generation of mono-screenprints as part of an ongoing ‘testing ground’ for image making. – Suzanne Nacha, Visiting Artist 2008