Sue Dean

Artist, Sue Dean has a background in education and is committed to equality and human rights. Her belief in the possibility for a world of respectful diversity is informed by her extensive travels. She has been included in family events at a Native American Pueblo for decades, and solo backpacked in Turkey, Bosnia, Greece, India, Scotland, and England. She also spent four years living in Japan, immersed in design aesthetics, social customs, and encounters with living legends of traditional arts.

Sue Dean's mystical and eclectic totem sculptures reflect Eastern, Western, and tribal influences. She has traveled and lived in different lands throughout the world, motivated since childhood to explore outside the boundaries of cultures. The anthropomorphic totems are formed from various textiles, fragments saved from travels, and found objects. Sue Dean states, “Different sizes and shapes of totems evolve as if from faraway planets, yet they're like people on earth, distinctive in expression and energy.”

She has participated in juried group exhibitions, the Creative Capital Summer Intensive, and Poetry Slams in New York. In a juried competition in 2017 her work was selected by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Artists Unite to be featured in the New York City’s subway system. She has shown at the Carter Burden Gallery, the Maggie Peyton Gallery, and the Women’s Caucus for Art and A.I.R.’s juried competition. Her Totem Neighbors have been centerpiece for two interfaith exhibits. In 2019, Dean exhibited her first installation at the Carter Burden Gallery. The current show is her third. Dean was awarded a Residency at The Millay Colony for the Arts in 2020.

Website: www.suedeanworld.com