EXCERPTS FROM ESSAYS AND REVIEWS

Hearne Pardee, "The Brooklyn Rail"

Confronting digital dehumanization along with ecological loss, Wides weaves together fragmentary encounters through her lens, generating Edenic visions in which the "machine in the garden" is us.


Carter Ratcliff, “Seeing Seen”

Wides’s images do something more difficult. They show us how resourceful vision can be as it seeks clarity in ambiguity. In September 20, 2015, there are just two spatial regions: close to the lens, a foreground filled by dark green foliage; and, glimpsed through breaks in the green, a middle ground—or is it a background?—where water splashes over rocks. This is one of the most disjunctive images in the exhibition. The challenge here is not to identify leaves and rocks and water but to imagine in detail the portion of space they share. And we do this with the pleasure we take in the self-aware exercise of our senses that Wides’s imagery encourages.


Lyle Rexer, “Alive and Looking”

The photographs diminish to zero the distance between us and the places Wides puts us. With no vantage point, we find ourselves the center of the action. The stasis and flow are not so much features of a landscape (although they are) as inner movements we experience in a rich, dense place we don't know and hasn't yet become visual wallpaper. There's panic, here, and preternatural composure.


Reva Wolf, from “Focus, Contrast, History: Susan Wides and the Cultural Landscape”

As her interest in the two postcards I just described intimates, Wides sees our world as deeply rooted in history. Art history is a subset of the history on which she reflects. Her close-up views of flowers may lead us back to Georgia O’Keeffe’s flower paintings of the 1920s (and the debate about whether this imagery is specifically “female,” or “feminist”). Her Hudson Vally landscapes pay direct homage to the eponymous 19th C painters whose work she has carefully researched in recent years. Yet Wides’ approach to history (a word that, to her, must be almost synonymous with “cultural landscape”) as constantly in a state of being born and dying, is perhaps closest in spirit not to any painter (or photographer), but to the Earthworks artist, Robert Smithson, who in the late 1960s and early 1970s was obsessed with the interdependence of these extremes of existence. Smithson, like Wides, paid special attention to why certain landscapes are noticed while other ones are ignored. Indeed,for Smithson, careful looking constituted art in and of itself. The complex relationship of mind to matter (Smithson’s “muddy thinking”) is another concern Wides shares with Smithson.


Ellen Handy, from “The Perception of Perception”

Throughout her work, referents cycle in and out of recognition, and questions of reality versus invention introduce themselves. The “real world” she photographs actually exists only within her finished prints and (perhaps) fleeting on her own retinas, since it is one that cannot exist without the essential mediation of perception. If a tree falls in the forest and Susan Wides isn’t there to see it, it can’t be pictured.


SELECTED BOOKS, CATALOGUES and ESSAYS

Susan Wides: Seeing Seen. Essay for gallery exhibition. Ratcliff, Carter 2017. [PDF]
Hudson: Mannahatta to Kaaterskill. Published by the Hudson River Museum 2011. Bland, Bartholomew; Panetta, Roger [PDF]
Focus, Contrast, History: Susan Wides and the Cultural Landscape. Catalogue to the exhibition at The Samuel Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY 2006. Wolf, Reva [PDF]
Among the Trees. Catalogue to the exhibition at The New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NY 2006. Marrero, Kimberly
Alive and Looking. Catalogue for gallery exhibition 2005. Rexer, Lyle [PDF]
Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs. Scalo 2002. George, Alice Rose; Peress, Gilles; Shuland, Michael and Traub, Charles.
One man's eye: Photographs from the Alan Siegel Collection. Harry N. Abrams 2000. Sobieszek, Robert A.and Siegel, Alan
The Perception of Perception. Catalogue for gallery exhibition 2000. Handy, Ellen [PDF]
Paradise Lost, The Garden in Art. Catalog to the exhibition at Middlebury College Museum of Art, VT 1998. Heartney, Eleanor
Mobile Views. Catalogue for gallery exhibition,1998. Frank, Madelyn [PDF]
signs, flowers and other memories. Catalogue for gallery exhibition, 1996. Ballerini, Julia
Foreign Ferns. Essay for gallery exhibition. 1993. Fineman, Mia
The Surrogate Figure. Catalogue to the travelling exhibition originating at The Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY. 1992. Ballerini, Julia [PDF]
World of Wax. Catalogue for gallery exhibition, Paris, France. 1990. Dusein, Gilles [PDF]
Suitable for Display: Museum, Spectacle, History. Essay for gallery exhibition 1988. Samore, Sam and Dietz, Steve

JOURNAL/MAGAZINE FEATURES and SELECTED REVIEWS

Hyperallergic, 'Artists Quarantine with thier Art Collections,' February 2021. Maine, Stephen
The Times Union, 'Surveying the Scenery' December 6–12, 2018, page 13. Griffin, Amy
The Brooklyn Rail, 'Susan Wides: this:seasons at Kim Foster Gallery' February 2018. Pardee, Hearne [PDF]
DART, 'Interview with Susan Wides' December 2017. Roalf, Peggy
Critical Studies in Fashion and Beauty, 'Review: Wax Museum at the Haifa Museum' Vol. 8 No. 1, 2017. Myzelev, Alla
Harper's Magazine, 'Monday Gallery: Susan Wides' March 27, 2017. Clarkson, Stacey
imby, 'Review: Susan Wides at 'T' Space'' January 2016. Isaacs, John
DART, 'Interview with Susan Wides' July 2014. Roalf, Peggy
ARTnews, 'Reviews: Susan Wides at Kim Foster' September 2013. Robertson, Rebecca [PDF]
HYPERALLERGIC, 'Susan Wides turns NYC into a Stage for Humanity.' April 4, 2013. Brill, Marietta [PDF]
Art in America Online, 'Susan Wides.' April 3, 2013. Ebony, David
AI_AP/DART, 'Susan Wides: On Top of the Rock.' November 26, 2013. Roalf, Peggy
Harper's Magazine, 'Witnessing the birth of Occupy Wall Street.' February 2012. Schneider, Nathan
The Guardian, 'New York in Color.' March 9, 2012 Conrad, Peter
Chronogram, 'On the Cover: Susan Wides.' September 2012. Gutman, Jennifer (video interview)
The New York Times, 'Perspectives Along the Urban-Rural Spectrum.' July 22, 2011. Hodara, Susan [PDF]
The New York Times, 'LENS: Rediscovering the Urban Palette.' September 30, 2011. Gonzalez, David
AI_AP/DART, 'Susan Wides: Hudson.' August 18, 2011. Roalf, Peggy
The New Yorker, 'Susan Wides at Kim Foster.' June 7, 2010. Aletti, Vince
ARTnews, Reviews: Susan Wides at Kim Foster September 2010
Harper's Magazine, 'The General Electric superfraud: Why the Hudson River will never run clean' December 2009. Gargill, David
Big, Red and Shiny, 'A Conversation with Susan Wides.' February 2008. Issue 76. Dugan, Jess
Photography Quarterly, 'The Camera Always Lies.' PQ #99, Summer 2008. Wilson, Beth E.
Chronogram, 'Arts & Culture. Portfolio: Susan Wides.' December 2007. Wilson, Beth E.
The New Yorker, 'Susan Wides at Kim Foster.' December 12, 2007. Aletti, Vince
The Village Voice, 'Recommendation: Susan Wides' Mannahatta.' December 12, 2007. Baker, RC
Art in America, 'Susan Wides at Kim Foster.' June-July 2006. Ebony, David
New York Magazine, 'Because, Well, Look Around.' December 26 2005. Bonanos, Christopher
This Week in New York, 'Susan Wides: Kaaterskill.' September 28, 2005
Hampton Magazine, 'Susan Wides' August 2004. Gifford, Helen
The Village Voice, 'Critic's Short List : Susan Wides.' March 3 2003. Aletti, Vince [PDF]
The New York Times, 'Susan Wides at Kim Foster Gallery.' February 28, 2003. Johnson, Ken
2wice journal, 'Glow: Downtown.' Vol.6 No.2 2003. Miller, J. Abbott [PDF]
Photo Insider, 'Susan Wides: From Landfills to Wax Museums.' July/August 2001. Pollack, Barbara
Doubletake, 'Mobile Views: Fresh Kills.' Summer 2001 [PDF]
Architecture, 'Talking Trash.' June 2001. Bernstein, Fred [PDF]
Harper's Magazine, 'Readings.' reproduction of 'Fresh Kills 1.' June 2001 [PDF]
The Southampton Press, 'The Transformational Power of Film.' June 14, 2001. Cummings, Mary
New York Magazine,' They Love Trash.' reproduction of 'Fresh Kills 5.' May 2001
The New York Times, ' What Makes New York 'the' City and Not 'a' City.' August 25, 2000. Goldberg, Vicki
The Village Voice, 'Voice Choices' May 20, 2000. Aletti, Vince
Art in America, 'Downtown.' September 2000, Lebowitz, Cathy
The New York Times,'' Up-To-Date Ideas From Emerging Talents", Sunday May 2, 2000. Braff, Phyllis
The East Hampton Star, 'Subterranean Collaborators,: James Holl & Susan Wides." 8/15/99. Watson, Sasha
The Village Voice, 'Voice Choices.' April 17-May 25, 1998.Aletti, Vince [Wides-Village Voice Choices.pdf]
The Washington Post, 'Shooting Rules.' February 5,1998. Smith, Watson
The Press Democrat, 'Photographer's Celebrity Illusions.' 12/30/98 [PDF]
Atlanta Journal/Constitution,' Photos at Museums' Cabinets of Curiosities.' May 30,1997. Cullum, Jerry [PDF]
The Object as Subject. 'Recasting Ancestry: Statuettes as Imaged by Three Inventors of Photography.' 1996 Ballerini, Julia
Camerawork, 'Genius loci, Ingenious Locations, and Landscape Photography Today.' 1996 Handy, Ellen [PDF]
The Village Voice, 'Critic's Short List : Susan Wides.' April 2, 1996. Aletti, Vince [PDF]
ARTFORUM, 'The Magic Kingdom of the Museum.' April 1992. Kuspit, Donald
The New York Times, ' How to Warm a Post Modernist's Heart.' February 9, 1992. Goldberg, Vicki [PDF]
The Oregonian, February 9, 1992. Gragg, Randy
Harvard Magazine, 'Visual Communications Award. July-August, 1991 [PDF]
Afterimage, 'Waxing Profound.' Review of solo exhibition at Hudson River Museum. 1/91. Shattuc, Jane [PDF]
Le Monde, 'Fausses Realities.' May 29,1990. Roegiers, Patrick
Le Monde, 'Guide Arts et Scpectacles: Susan Wides,' May 24, 1990. Beuve Mery, Hubert
Gannet Westchester Papers, 'Hudson River Museum offers Fascinating Night Gallery,' 9/21/90. Gouveia, G.
The New York Times,' In Yonkers, Art with a River View.' October 14, 1990
The New York Times,' Photographic Works of Fantasy.' December 3, 1989. Raynor, Vivian
Cliches Magazine, 'Gilles Dusein: Galeriste, Acrobate, Collectionneur.' Issue #56, 1989
Selected Photographs from the Collection1989 The Brooklyn Museum. Reproduction of 'Hidden Agenda' on Exhibition Poster
The New York Observer 'Photographs Deconstruct Museums' Hallowed Halls.' 11/7/88. Coleman, A.D.
New York Daily News, 'Musee to Wax Anew.' January 16, 1987. Farrell, Bill
The Village Voice,'The End of the World in Wax. 4/15/85. Trebay, Guy