Suzie Buchholz is a Bay Area-based abstract painter with a playful yet rebellious approach to the tradition of Abstract Expressionism. Her process is highly physical, driven by an instinct for harmony of color and form. Inspired by the tangled and fragile moments of daily life, her work combines a gritty, street-wise sensibility with an uncanny, painterly tenderness.
Buchholz holds a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and Certificat from the Aterlier du Soliel, Aix en Provence, France. She is the recipient of several residencies, including Djerassi Artists Program, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and Sant’Anna in Camprena, Pienza, Italy. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US and Europe, including Galerie Ruban Vert in Aix-en-Provence, France, Colorida Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal, Galerie Mani in Berlin, Germany and Galleria di Biblioteca in Pienza, Italy. A multimedia installation “Pills for Parents” was exhibited at Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, and was part of the Zero1 Biennial. Her work is the collections of Presidio of San Francisco, Bay Area Discovery Museum, Djerassi and numerous corporate and private collections.
Statement
My studio sits just above a marina, overlooking the bay. There is a constant hum of activity here. There is also a comforting familiarity and orderly progression of the day—the ebb and flow of the tides, the changing color palette of the light, warm to cool to warm again, reflecting on land, water and sky.
In a world shaped by uncertainty and discord, my work insists on light and joy as meaningful forms of resistance.
I grew up in Kansas, the daughter of a minister whose quiet creativity shaped my understanding of art. He wrote sermons on color-coded index cards — tiny, penciled compositions that felt charmingly artistic and painterly. He welded railroad spikes into figures, gathered found objects, and made huge kites from grocery bags, with rag tails that lifted into the sky. Craft, faith and improvisation were inseparable.
While I am not a religious person, that inheritance — making something luminous from the ordinary — anchors my painting practice.
For decades I have worked in abstraction, building layered surfaces that function less as images than as spaces of encounter. I align myself with the Bay Area lineage of artists who pushed beyond convention to locate something authentic and new. For me, painting is not merely aesthetic; it is existential. It is a way of insisting on possibility.
Over the past year, my practice has undergone a profound transformation shaped by my recovery from breast cancer. Confronting mortality has brought a new clarity to my role as an artist. The paintings have become more energetic, joyful, and emotionally direct — grounded in optimism, resilience, and a renewed sense of vitality within an increasingly complex world.