The What and Why of retirement

The What and Why of retirement. After the summer hiatus, the gallery will reopen, as a gallery. In September for an exhibition by Jeff Rathermel, the executive director of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. At the end of his show, toward the end of October. The space will slide back into studio space for a bit. A lingering question remains, however. Why retire?

The What and Why of retirement

When I opened Susan Hensel Gallery, I gave up a robust exhibition career. ( over 100 regional and national exhibitions, many collections, a museum or two…) in order to create a space for experimentation where unconventional artists could give voice to their ideas. I have worked hard and loved every moment of it. And I will miss the dailiness of it and the times I get to meet new people. So I am NOT closing entirely.
What will retirement look like in Susan Hensel Gallery? It is more a change of material state than a retirement. In the fall of 2011, I will reduce the exhibition programming of the gallery to one or 2 shows per year. The windows and the yard will be available for installation. I will make a tremendous mess in the main gallery space. As it will become my studio and I am a tremendously messy artist.
In 2012, I will curate and exhibit Reader’s Art 12. Regardless, I will remain open on Mondays, for wool sales and the curiosity seekers. Past that? We’ll have to wait and see.

Textile Art by Susan Hensel

Discover the transformative textile art by Susan Hensel. Susan Hensel is a multie artist. With a 50+ year career. She combines a mixed media practice with embroidery across digital and manual platforms. She also makes sculptures and wall art using the colors and techniques of commercial embroidery. These artworks are designed on the computer. Then stitched out on the computer-aided embroidery machine. The goal is to create an experience for the viewer that overwhelms with color and transcends the quotidian. Encouraging one, for even a few seconds, to step outside the narrative of the ego into a place of pure sensation.

Hensel’s artwork is known and collected nationwide. It is shown off in collecting libraries and museums as disparate as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Getty Research Institute. There are major holdings at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. University of Washington, Baylor University, and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Archives pertaining to her artist’s books are available for study at the University of Washington Libraries in Seattle. Hensel’s curatorial work began in 2000 in East Lansing, Michigan with the Art Apartment and deepened with ownership of the Susan Hensel Gallery. Hensel has curated over seventy exhibitions of emerging and mid-career artists from all over the United States and Canada.

In recent years, Hensel has been awarded multiple grants and residencies through the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Ragdale Foundation.