For Pratt in Venice alumni Susan Luss (PIV ‘11) and Gerald Luss (PIV ‘11), the global pandemic has not meant the cessation of their art practice.
Susan’s In The Time of Now is a body of work that was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic during the New York City shelter in place order that began on 16 March, 2020.
In Susan’s own words:
For a long time, I have used my body in creation of my work. The landscapes/maps on canvas are distillations of my urban wanderings, both physical and psychological. The emergence of these public performances—I’ll call them “urban en plein air interventions”—have become imperative for my survival “in the time of now.” Using the forces of weather and nature—light, wind, rain among them—within the urban landscape is both resistance to and acceptance of what is beyond my control. It is about struggling to ground my body in space and time in relationship to the environment, whether in a park or amongst architecture. While my work on canvas may seem large in scale, I experience it as small in relationship to the scale around me. These performative actions are a necessary part to the whole. The blood of the city. Things are emerging and shifting. Situational. Provisional. Adaptable. Nothing is fixed. I feel my life prepared me for now.
Gerald’s newest work, Infinity, 2020, is a site specific sculpture of time. It was conceived over the months of March, April, and May during the pandemic shelter in place order in New York City. Its final form was constructed in June and July, now residing at the juncture of time between then and now, inside and outside, of infinity.
According to Gerald, Infinity is a “new timepiece conceived and physically positioned to reflect upon the interrelationship with infinity occurring every nanosecond irrespective of location within the universe as currently envisioned.”
Alumni Gerald Luss and Susan Luss with their work (in the foreground) at the Pratt in Venice 35th Anniversary Exhibition & Celebration opening reception at Steuben Gallery, Pratt Institute, October 16, 2019 (photo: Georgia Lale).
Susan Luss (b. El Paso, TX) is an inter-disciplinary artist living in New York City, maintaining a studio in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Luss received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and her BFA in Studio Arts Painting from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. Luss has exhibited her work at various venues in the New York area and beyond, including Lowe Mill A&E in Huntsville, AL, the Museum of Art and Culture, New York, Chashama in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition, the Knockdown Center, Brooklyn, and Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn, the Hole in NYC, Haverstraw RiverArts in Haverstraw, NY, Garner Arts Center in Garner, NY, Westbeth Gallery and the Painting Center in NYC, among others. Luss has curated exhibitions at Pratt Institute, Westbeth Gallery, and Aaron Davis Hall, City College of New York. She serves as an advisory member of ArtShape Mammoth, a nonprofit organization with the mission to cultivate arts research, education, and dialogue by supporting the development of artists and connecting them with new communities. Luss’s work is held in public and private collections including Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, and La Table des Artistes, France, among others.
Gerald Luss is an architect best known for the interiors of the Time-Life Building (1959) in New York City featured in AMC’s MAD MEN. Design for Business, a company he owned during the 1950–70s, was very influential in the modern era of business interior and furniture design. The Gerald Luss House (1952), located in Ossining, New York, is his first residential home built for his family when he was twenty-five years old. The home includes many original pieces designed by Mr. Luss, including the Time-Life twelve foot couch and coffee table. At 93, Mr. Luss lives in the Dakota in New York City, where he has an apartment, studio and office. He works daily as an architect and artist making rare clocks.
