Textile Art by Susan Hensel

Discover the transformative textile art by Susan Hensel. Susan Hensel is a multidisciplinary 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 in the computer and 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 represented 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.

Fiber and mixed media objects of overwhelming color that transcend the quotidien, creating experiences that step into pure sensation.

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Use the search function to find original artwork by Susan Hensel

Gallery Work

Gallery Work including Exhibitions

Susan Hensel’s work, including installation art, has been featured in multiple galleries across the county.

Presentations

Studio visits, lectures, panel discussions, and other visiting artist activities.

Previous engagements have included visits to:

Emory and Henry College, VA
Chadron State College, NE
Alma College, MI
Lansing State Library, MI
East Lansing Library, MI
Minnesota Center for Book Arts, MN
Hollanders, MI
Habitat for Humanity, MN
Las Vegas Civic Center, NV
Weavers Guild of Minnesota

Body of Work

Susan is a multidisciplinary artist, with a 50+ year career

With a history, to date, of over 200 exhibitions, more than 30 of them solo, twenty garnering awards, Hensel’s desire to communicate ideas through art continues to be a powerful motivator.

Textile Art by Susan Hensel

Professional Organizations

Susan is a member of the following:

  • Women’s Art Resources of Minnesota
  • Surface Design of America
  • Textile Society of America
  • Weavers Guild of Minnesota
  • Textile Center of Minnesota
  • Minnesota Center for Book Arts
  • Women’s Caucus for Art
  • College Art Association

Mentoring

She is available for mentoring on a variety of subjects:

  • Taking the next step: How to build an exhibition career
  • Getting seen: How to use social media
  • Productivity in the Studio (Download The Free PDF!)
  • Grant fulfillment: that second pair of eyes, timelines, advice
  • Critique
  • Technical skills: Hand dyeing, hand spinning, digitizing for machine embroidery, in addition to other media

Rates are negotiable.

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Susan’s Artwork

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About Susan