Recent Newsletter: Celebrating Art and Science at the Broad and more

Read my most recent newsletter about "Celebrating Art and Science at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard" and the upcoming exhibit, "Charting the World: Subjective MapMaking" at the Suffolk University.

Library
Deaccessioned card catalog cabinets from the Harvard Fine Arts Library,
Petri dishes, laser cut vellum, lab tapes, and various lab tools in the drawers.
2016 - 2017

Currently installed at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Celebrating Art and Science at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

My work is being included in this group exhibition featuring works by past and current Artists-in-Residence at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. I'm happy to be finally showing my work at the place where I created them during my Artist-in-Residence. I'm showing an installation entitled Library and several pieces from Inscription drawings (translocation of double-stranded passage).

I feel honored to be showing my work in a group of such talented artists, Daniel Kohn, Gupi Ranganathan, Maskull Lasserre, and Lucy Kim.

Broad Institute is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year. This exhibit is a part of their Broad15 celebration. The exhibit is open by appointment only to the public. It is free, but must register on Eventbrite to make appointments.

Artists talk and reception is scheduled for January 14, 5-7pm at the Broad Institute, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA. It'll be held on the 2nd floor connector area where the exhibit is. It should be a great event!

Upcoming solo exhibition, "Excerpts" at Babson College

I’m pleased to announce my upcoming solo exhibition, Excerpts at the Hollister Gallery at Babson College. The exhibit opens on September 12th. I’m showing a new iteration of my Artist-in-Residence projects at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, as well as two new pieces I have created this summer, including "Untitled (We still want to believe)". These works have never been exhibited, so I'm very excited to show my new work.

Excerpts (solo exhibition)
September 12 - November 1, 2019
Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Thursday, September 12, 5-7pm
Hollister Gallery at the Sorenson Center for the Arts
Babson College
231 Forest Street, Wellesley, MA
Free and open to the public. *Reservation is encouraged.
Visit Facebook Event page

Excerpts, a new iteration of Naoe Suzuki’s Artist-in-Residence projects at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, is an exploration of interconnectedness between knowledge and belief in medical science. Suzuki incorporates magic spells from the Edwin Smith Papyrus, from 1,600 BC in Egypt, the earliest known medical papyrus to include prognosis. She extracts and sequences these archaic spells—indecipherable to the untrained eye—as formal visual elements, and invites viewers to read the unreadable. The artist traced the magic spells by hand, recalling the scribes’ handiwork in the papyrus, but used laser cutting to cut out these spells.

Suzuki contemplates our ancient convictions about medicine in a time when science, medicine, and technology are all accelerating at a rate that is unprecedented in human history. Bringing forth a forgotten treatise to the present, she asks us what is legitimate, what we may have lost, and what we still believe.

Watch the video about Broad Institute Artist-in-Residence.

Evening with the Artist at the Leventhal Map & Education Center on March 7th

Enlarged historical map is seen on the floor just before you enter 

the Leventhal Map & Education Center. 

Evening with the Artist at the Leventhal Map & Education Center on March 7th

I'm currently developing ideas for using historical maps from the collections from the Leventhal Map & Education Center for my workshop that's scheduled for March 7th. Using copies of historical maps of Back Bay, we'll explore Back Bay before 1857 and 1882. What happened to these years? Did you know that Back Bay was literally a bay before 1857? Massive landfill project began that year, and the present day Back Bay was filled by 1882. I'm looking through their online collection and finding many great maps for this workshop!

The workshop is free but registration is required. Participation is limited to 20 people. If you're interested, please register for the workshop.

"Our Evening with the Artist events invite you to look, listen and create. Look closely at art and map pairings in the Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps exhibition at the Leventhal Map & Education Center. Listen to an artist talk. Create something inspired by the artist's work and process."

Boston Globe review on "Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps"

"Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps" was reviewed in the Boston Globe! My work was mentioned in this review written by Mark Feeney.

"A map is at once abstract and representational. It’s abstract because it doesn’t look like anything that exists in the external world — as say, a portrait, does a human face. It’s representational because it renders actual relationships in the external world — like distances, heights, and direction. So the issue of a map’s intrinsic beauty aside — and some of the cartographic items in “Crossing Boundaries: Art//Maps” are very beautiful indeed — read more. 


The exhibit poster was designed with detail image of my work, "Water, is Taught by Thirst (BLUE), Greater Boston" on the left, and detail image of the 1892 blueprint map, "Map of Charles River Showing Principal Sources of Pollution"by the Boston Engineer Department. 

The Leventhal B. Map & Education Center put together a very insightful online exhibition. My drawing is included in the section called, "Coastlines & Waterways." You can explore each sections, and learn more about each map and artwork that's paired.

Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps opens at Leventhal Map & Education Center

Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps opens

press release

Naoe Suzuki featured in new exhibition at Leventhal Map & Education Center 

 “Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps” goes on view October 9

Boston, MA –The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center has featured Naoe Suzuki in a new show that explores maps as art in Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps.

Image: “Water, is Taught by Thirst (BLUE), Greater Boston” 

Mineral pigment, watercolor, and tea on paper. 30”x 22” 

The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library will open a new exhibition next week exploring the ways in which artists traverse the traditional boundaries of cartography and art. Maps spanning several centuries and contemporary works of art are juxtaposed to create a dialogue between geographic representation and how artists use cartographic imagery to explore themes rarely touched by conventional mapmakers. Maps and artworks have been paired to present the juxtaposition between geographic representations and the ways that artists use cartographic imagery to explore themes untouched by conventional mapmakers. 

The exhibition is on view October 9, 2018 through April 21, 2019, in the Leventhal Map Gallery, at the Boston Public Library, Central Library in Copley Square. 

Art // Maps is driven by core themes which inform the viewer and allow for personal reflection: Order Out of Chaos, Projections & Distortions, Coastlines & Waterways, Urban Life and Borders & Conflicts. Water, is Taught by Thirst (BLUE), Greater Boston by Naoe Suzuki is displayed in the exhibition as a companion to a map to show the natural resonance of art and maps in natural pairings. 

“Water, Is Taught by Thirst” series was created by tracing waterways from topographical maps. In (BLUE) series, the waterways are painted in mineral pigment and watercolor. The paper was first stained with tea.

Connie Chin, President of the Leventhal Map & Education Center, says “We welcome back former Executive Director Jan Spitz to organize this exhibition, which is a fresh take on art and cartographic inspiration, and also showcases some of the fascinating treasures of the collection.”

“I’ve always seen maps as art,” adds Jan Spitz. “By comparing maps with contemporary art, we see creativity and cartography from a new perspective.” 

Exhibition visitors will be invited to join the What Did YouSee? table, an interactive component designed for this show. They can play a game with family, friends or other visitors to share impressions about the works of art and the maps. Comparing viewpoints with others will expand the experience for all, and everyone is encouraged to join in the fun. 

The Map Center will be hosting three evenings to engage in art-making activities with artists from the exhibition. The first event will be Thursday, November 15th from 6pm – 8pm. Registration is required, please visit Eventbrite and sign-up for “Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps – Evening with the Artist”. The second two events are scheduled for Thursday, January 17, 2019, and Thursday, March 7, 2019 and registration information will be available closer to event dates. A panel discussion with artists from the exhibit will be hosted in the winter of 2019, date and time to be released.

Crossing Boundaries: Art / /Mapsis open Monday-Thursday: 10am-7pm, Friday & Saturday: 10am-5pm, and Sundays: 1pm-5pm in the Leventhal Map Gallery, located on the first floor of the Central Library in Copley Square. As part of this exhibition, works by the following artists will be on display: Mary Armstrong, Abel Barroso, Tony Berlant, Jonathan Callan, Tiffany Chung, Kirsten Fisher, Carly Glovinski, Abby Goldstein, Alexander Gorlizki, Joyce Kozloff, Daniel McDonald, Abelardo Morell, Bruce Myren, Naoe Suzuki, Heidi Whitman, Richard Youngstrom. Visit the exhibition website at leventhalmap.org. 

About the NORMAN B. LEVENTHAL MAP & EDUCATION CENTER AT THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center is ranked among the top map centers in the United States for the size of its collection, the significance of its historic (pre-1900) material, its advanced digitization program, and its exceptional exhibitions and educational programs.

The Center’s mission is to use its extensive map collections to inspire curiosity and learning among people of all ages, illuminating history, geography, world cultures, science, and contemporary issues. The Center offers a robust selection of K-12 education programs for students of all levels, develops and disseminates lesson plans, and trains teachers to use maps effectively and creatively in the classroom. Public programming includes changing exhibitions, lectures, workshops, classes, and family programs. An extensive website offers free access to nearly 10,000 high resolution digitized maps of historical significance, virtual exhibitions, geo-referencing capabilities, and a Tools for Teachers section with map sets and classroom activities.   

The Center was established by philanthropist Norman Leventhal as a public-private partnership with the Boston Public Library and was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2007. The Center stewards the Boston Public Library’s permanent collection of 200,000 maps and 5,000 atlases and a select group of rare maps collected by Mr. Leventhal. The collection, the second largest in the country located in a public library, is freely available for academic and public research. To learn more, visit leventhalmap.org

About BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY Boston Public Library provides educational, cultural and civic enrichment, free to all, for the residents of Boston, Massachusetts and beyond, through its collections, services, programs, and spaces. Established in 1848, the Boston Public Library is a pioneer of public library service in

America. It was the first large free municipal library in the United States, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library, and the first to have a children’s room. As a City of Boston historic cultural institution, Boston Public Library today features a Central Library, twenty-five branches, a map center, business library, archival center; extensive special collections of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, and prints; and rich digital content and online services. The award-winning renovation of the Central Library in Copley Square, completed in 2016, together with new, renovated and historic branches, provide a transformed library system for the next generation of users. Boston Public Library enriches lives, hosting thousands of free educational programs and exhibitions, and providing free library services online and in-person to millions of people each year. 

To learn more, visit bpl.org

Elemental at 13FOREST Gallery

I'm pleased to announce that my work is currently shown in a two-person show, Elemental, featuring the work of Lynda Schlosberg and Naoe Suzuki.

Elemental
13Forest Gallery 
167A Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 
September 29 - November 9, 2018 
Opening Reception: September 29, 4:00-6:00pm
Artist Talk: October 13, 4:00-6:00pm

Elemental connects two artists who share a desire to peel back the layers of nature and human perception to reveal fundamental truths at the heart of reality. Using processes of digital abstraction and intuitive mark making, Schlosberg and Suzuki deconstruct the world around us and then rebuild it through intricate and engaging imagery.

Read more.