Tiffany's Tussie Mussie III, 2023
Oil on linen, 16 x 12 in

Courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles.

The Paintings Are Not Going to Paint Themselves, 2024
Oil on linen, 78 x 85 in

Photo Credit: JSP Art Photography
Courtesy of Susan Chen & Rachel Uffner Gallery

An Assembly of After-Care Kits, 2024
Oil on linen, 78 x 96 in

Photo Credit: JSP Art Photography
Courtesy of Susan Chen & Rachel Uffner Gallery

Plan B: A Discussion, 2024
Oil on linen, 76 x 84 in

Photo Credit: JSP Art Photography
Courtesy of Susan Chen & Rachel Uffner Gallery

Silver Art Projects, 2024
Oil on canvas, 60 x 84 in

Photo Credit: JSP Art Photography
Courtesy of Susan Chen & Rachel Uffner Gallery

Chinatown Block Watch, 2022
Oil on canvas, 74 x 84 in

Photo Credit: Genevieve Hanson
Courtesy of Susan Chen & Jeffrey Deitch Gallery

An Afternoon Making Quaranzines with Apex for Youth, 2022
Oil on canvas, 80 x 100 in

Courtesy of Susan Chen & Night Gallery

#StopAsianHate, 2021
Oil on canvas, 78 x 120 in

Photo Credit: John Groo
Courtesy of Susan Chen & Night Gallery

Yang Gang, 2020
Oil on canvas, 76 x 96 in

Photo Credit: Adam Reich
Courtesy of Susan Chen & Meredith Rosen Gallery

memory/

I loved to draw as a kid. In third grade, my teacher accused me of tracing an image I had drawn, and I got in a lot of trouble for it. I've always liked making art, but I never thought of it as a possible profession—it's just what you do.

I didn't learn how to oil paint until my junior year of college. I was always a good student; my parents often reminded me they didn't spend all this money on my education just for me to “throw it away” on art classes, but I became kind of obsessed. I stayed on campus during winter sessions and the summers to finish a double major. My first job out of college was an office job, but I still had a tiny studio around a hundred square feet. I tried to make paintings at night and on the weekends.

My favorite part about painting is learning about the world and other people through it. Everyone in my family has worked in a factory–my dad still lives in a small factory village in Taiwan. In my work, I like to focus on people who are working behind the scenes. One of my favourite moments was painting portraits of my studio assistants–capturing those who make my studio and paintings possible.

The artist’s studio.

Photo Credit: Axel Dupeux
Courtesy of the artist & Creative Capital

line/

People think I’m some kind of grand activist, but honestly, a lot of these paintings happen through chance encounters–there's no grand scheme.

I meet people and invite them to the studio to come sit for me. In the beginning, there were only about thirty people. They would come to the studio, sit, and tell me about their lives. Over time, the number grew. At first, I would go to every birthday party I was invited to, because painting someone feels very delicate and intimate–you build a real connection. Everyone who comes to the studio is already community-oriented; otherwise, they wouldn’t have agreed to sit for me. But after painting a hundred people, I realized you can’t go to everyone’s parties anymore. I had to shift my mindset: I started thinking of it like making a movie, with my sitters as the actors. It's not possible to stay close to everyone.

Still, I remember almost everyone I've painted. Little memories will resurface on random days, and I'll wonder what they’re up to. Sometimes their stories stay with me. I remember one sitter who told me he had changed his name multiple times in trying to search for himself. Moments like that remind me how everyone is wanting the same basic things–painting helps me see our shared humanity.

The artist’s studio.

Photo Credit: Axel Dupeux
Courtesy of the artist & Creative Capital

color/

When I’m brainstorming a painting, a hazy vision usually appears. I see the painting in my mind and then make a black-and-white sketch, which I magnify onto a large cardboard to get an idea of the proportions. Then, I will order the canvas and start painting.

I don't do any color planning–the painting just happens. It's like building a jigsaw puzzle, but all the pieces don't actually fit properly together and all the colors are kind of wrong. Sometimes things don't work out, which is very frustrating. You have to scrape the paint off, try again, and then build. Many painters dig themselves into a problem and then they have to solve their way out of it. In painting, you have to go through the ugly phase and worm your way out. I also continue to be amazed by how every color only functions in relation to what’s next to it.

In the last few years, I've been obsessed with impasto painting. My paintings just kept getting thicker and thicker until they started feeling like a handwriting. I think of painting as music, like Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”; there are moments that sound like a cute little bird and other moments where there is a scary wolf–there's a crescendo. Then there's a softness and little pitter-patter: it’s mark-making. When I'm making a painting, I think about that.

As the paintings became thicker, I asked if these things had to be on a two-dimensional surface. Ceramics felt like the easiest entry point for a painter. You're still painting, but now you're painting on a three-dimensional surface instead of two. When you work in the studio too much, it’s easy to get trapped in routine. Since ceramics studios are communal spaces, it helps me get out of my own head.

I would love to keep working with ceramics. There are so many things that I would love to do. I'm just taking it year after year.

The artist’s studio.

Photo Credit: Axel Dupeux
Courtesy of the artist & Creative Capital

Written and interviewed by Emma Kang.

Emma Kang is a writer and artist based in Washington D.C.

Published May 27, 2025.

Photo Credit: Axel Dupeux
Courtesy of the artist & Creative Capital

Susan Chen

Susan Chen (b. 1992) is an artist based in New York City. She received a BA Honors from Brown University in 2015 and an MFA from Columbia University in 2020.

Chen is a 2022 Forbes Under 30 North America Honoree, 2022 Artsy Vanguard Artist, and 2020 Hopper Prize Winner. In 2022, she was an Artist-in-Residence at Silver Art Projects in their Social Justice & Activism program at the World Trade Center. Her work has been featured on the cover of New York Magazine, multiple issues of New American Paintings, and covered by The New York Times, CNN, Hyperallergic, Artnet, Artsy, Cultured Magazine, PBS, and more. Her first solo exhibitions were presented with Meredith Rosen Gallery, Night Gallery, and Rachel Uffner Gallery.