About Susan Snipes

Artist’s Statement

Texts, emails, voicemails, social chats, and other digital messages inundate me daily blurring the line between “in real life” (IRL) and virtual connections. Technologies proclaiming to connect frequently leave me feeling isolated and overwhelmed.

In my most recent media installation, Waiting for Your Response, I blend recorded and live communications by projecting fragments of unanswered digital communications over physical “return to sender” letters and mixing voice recordings with live feedback.

My work underscores the unfulfilled longing for intimacy that digital culture amplifies. I aim to create spaces where viewers can reflect on the quality of their communications and consider intentional, authentic ways to connect in an increasingly mixed reality world.

Artist Bio

Susan Snipes is an interdisciplinary artist based in Cleveland, Ohio, whose media installations respond to the anxieties and disconnection of the digital age. Working across various mediums and often incorporating interactive elements, she creates immersive spaces that invite reflection and dialogue. Her work encourages audiences to explore their own roles within an interconnected reality where virtual and physical boundaries are increasingly blurred.

Susan holds an MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA in Art History from Case Western Reserve University. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Kennedy Prize for Creative Achievement in the Arts.

Susan has exhibited extensively, with recent highlights including the CAN Triennial, “YOU ARE HERE” at The Sculpture Center in Cleveland, and the 79th Annual May Show at the Mansfield Art Center. Her work has also been featured in publications such as Collective Arts Network Journal and The Earthkeepers Handbook, curated by Kim Abeles and Whitefeather Hunter.

An active advocate for her community, Susan founded NEO Art Opportunities to connect Northeast Ohio artists with grants, exhibitions, and other resources. She also established UNDERSTORY, a contemporary art space in Cleveland dedicated to showcasing emerging conceptual and media artists, with the goal of making art more accessible to the public.

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Exhibitions

2025

Your Attention, Please (FORTHCOMING), UNDERSTORY, Cleveland, Ohio

Feeling Tone, The Listener’s Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

Entangled, Gallery D300, CalArts, Valencia, California 

Reverberations, UNDERSTORY, Cleveland, Ohio

Summer Studio Space, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado

79th Annual May Show, Mansfield Art Center, Mansfield, Ohio

May Show, The Gallery at Lakeland, Kirtland, Ohio

Winter Studio Space, Susquehanna College, Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania

2023

Heal the Man, Heal the Land, Earthkeepers Handbook, curated by Kim Abeles and WhiteFeather Hunter

Winter Exhibition, The Ark, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont

2022

CAN Triennial, “YOU ARE HERE”, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio

Member Exhibition, Artist Archives of the Western Reserve, Cleveland, Ohio

2021

Primal Disposition, Vestige Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Potential Energy (SOLO EXHIBITION), Suite 215 Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio

May Show, The Gallery at Lakeland, Kirtland, Ohio 

48th Hoyt Regional Juried Exhibition, Hoyt Art Center, New Castle, Pennsylvania - MERIT AWARD

Celestial Bodies, Adrian Center for the Arts, Adrian, Michigan - HONORABLE MENTION

BAYarts Annual Juried Exhibition 2021, Sullivan Gallery, Bay Village, Ohio 

Art in Isolation, Ashtabula Arts Center, Ashtabula, Ohio - HONORABLE MENTION

 

2020 

49th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Margaret “Peg” Bowen Gallery, Chagrin Falls, Ohio

Great Northern Art Explosion, AuSable Artisan Village, Grayling, Michigan

Art from the Shutdown, YARDS Projects, Cleveland, Ohio