Susu Attar
Susu Attar is a multimedia artist who was born in Baghdad and raised in Los Angeles, where she is currently based. Throughout the various manifestations of her work, Susu leads the viewer on a search for moments of empathy and transformation. The viewer is engaged in a meditation on the fundamental importance of bearing witness, the work of art (its status as object and action), and the hope that lies in the transformative potential of the artistic gesture.
Since the start of 2019, Susu has been a fellow at USC Annenberg Innovation Lab’s Civic Media Fellowship with support from the MacArthur Foundation. In 2018, she held two artist residencies in Los Angeles: one at The Main Museum, and the other as one of the inaugural participants in the +LAB Artist Residency through the Little Tokyo Service Center. She was also a finalist for the 2018 Los Angeles Artadia Award. In 2018, Susu held two solo exhibitions at the Institute for Art and Olfaction and The Mistake Room Los Angeles as well as participating in group exhibitions at home and internationally. Her work has been included in exhibitions in Dubai, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Montreal, Mexico City, and San Francisco, among other cities.
Susu’s practice extends to cultural organizing, theatrical production and exhibition curating. Notably, she is a member of SEPIA Collective, a women of color art collective based in Compton, CA whose work includes a traveling exhibition, ICONIC: Black Panther, in which artists respond to the legacy of the Black Panther Party. She has also co-produced and designed Haram, an experimental theatrical production inspired by the poetry of her mentor Dr. Maher Hathout. Susu has produced and facilitated numerous education programs both in the US and abroad aimed at utilizing art making to expand communal imagination. She holds a BA from San Francisco State University in Painting and Conceptual Information Art.