Sue Dirksen

Paintings

January 14–March 13, 2021

Exhibition catalog

Sojourn, 2020

Sojourn, 2020; 24×72 inches

Primavera, 2016

Primavera, 2016; 24×72 inches

Essence II, 2015–17

Essence II, 2015–17; 24×60 inches

Memento Mori II, 2017

Memento Mori II, 2017; 24×40 inches

Tropical II, 2019

Tropical II, 2019; 24×48 inches

Press Release

Brian Gross Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent monochrome paintings by California artist Sue Dirksen, opening January 14th. This Project Room exhibition will spotlight five new works that evidence Dirksen’s subtle mastery of color, light and surface for which she is known. The exhibition will be on view through March 13, 2021.

Dirksen’s influences are the natural world, Japanese aesthetics and Buddhist philosophy. These monochrome works exude a sense of quiet and meditative depth. Each of Sue Dirksen’s paintings is the result of many layers of thin acrylic washes. The color is gradually built up, with each new layer adding ethereal color shifts. Her surfaces possess a delicate textural articulation.

Dirksen states about her work: I am a painter who paints the vibrational energy that I perceive in the universe. My paintings are built with veils of light obtained through multiple layers of thin acrylic paint—sometimes into the hundreds—to embody the various intensities of light energy with color.

The exhibition will feature three of Dirksen’s nuanced white paintings, as well as two works with deep color. Dirksen employs small hints of color to accentuate the elegant surfaces of her white paintings. The intense, pigmented works are suffused with fine variations in color density that articulate a sense of deep luminosity from within the paint layers.

Dirksen, who grew up in Sausalito, studied at UC Berkeley and UCLA. She spent 25 years in Los Angeles, painting and exhibiting her work. Later ordained as a Buddhist nun, she has said that her paintings come primarily from meditation. Sue Dirksen lives and works in Santa Cruz, CA.

Sue Dirksen has exhibited extensively in California and Germany, and is represented in public and private collections including Bank of America, CA; University of California, Los Angeles; California State University, Fullerton; Kokusai Kanko Co., Japan; Nationwide Savings, CA; Nikko Hotels, Japan; United Arab Emirate Embassy, Baltimore, MD; and Wichita State University, KS.