 "Life is a festival and painting is a celebration of it."SUSAN GURRENTZ COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY Born in Philadelphia to immigrant parents, Susan Gurrentz grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From a young age, her immense gift for art was recognized, and her parents fostered her talent by seeking out opportunities for private lessons and art classes. Gurrentz attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York City and after her marriage to Mort Gurrentz, finished her degree at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, PA. After graduation, Gurrentz began showing her work in the Pittsburgh area in both group and one-woman shows. During that time, her paintings were regularly shown at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Active in the civil rights causes of the 1960s, Gurrentz founded a charity that raised funds for higher education for needy young black students. In 1971, Gurrentz attended the first Sarah Lawrence summer art program in Provence, France. After moving to Aspen in the early 1980s, Gurrentz attended hand-made papermaking classes at Anderson Ranch Art Center. Fascinated by the process, she devoted the following ten years largely to the art of papermaking. In addition to handling sales from her studio in Aspen and the many galleries that carried her work, Gurrentz was commisssioned by the Soffer Organization in Pittsburgh to create a paper mural for their office lobby. She subsequently contributed a 9' by 16' paper mural to the Aspen Elementary School, which hung in the school above the entrance to the District Theater. Also in the early 1980s, a hiking trip to the Langtang Valley in Nepal and to the base camp of Mt. Everest the following year resulted in a one-woman show of paintings and photgraphs of her experiences at the Pittsburgh Center of the Arts. The same photographs were recently included in a world-traveling show, "Art of the Himalayas," which was presented at the Frick Art Museum in Pittsburgh. As a painter, Gurrentz has created large-scale works on a variety of subject matters including commissioned portraits, cowboys, western themes, flowers and most recently, bears. In Aspen, Gurrentz continues to paint and pursue her career in portraiture, begun while still in her teens. As a full-time Colorado resident for more than twenty years, Gurrentz has become part of the fabric of the Aspen community, serving on the boards of the Aspen Art Museum for seven years and "Les Dames d'Aspen" (two years as president of the organization). A member of the board of Dance Aspen for three years, she is now a member of the National Council for the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. Gurrentz is the mother to three married sons and devoted grandmother to seven grandchildren, all of whom share her love and gift for art. EDUCATION
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS Group Exhibitions
One-woman Shows
Invited Shows
Art In Public Places Penn Center West, Pittsburgh, PA, The Soffer Organization: "Doutai", 1991 | Aspen Elementary School, Aspen, CO, Mural "4UKIDZ", 1993 | Castle Creek Terrace, Aspen, CO | Jewish Community Center, Pittsburgh, PA | Doubletree Inn Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA | National Jewish Hospital, Denver, CO | James Wallace Trust, Auckland, New Zealand, 2007 Contract Work Sheraton Inn, Boulder, CO | Hilton Inn, Meadowlands, Washington, PA | Dorothy Draper, New York | Claridge Motor Inn, Rhinelander, WI Collections Papercraft, Pittsburgh, PA | Sewickley Hospital, Sewickley, PA | Westbury Hotel, Chicago, IL | Lloyds Bank, Coral Gables, FL | Fort Smith Hospital, Fort Smith, AR | Credit Suisse, Coral Gables, FL | C.S. McKee Corp., Pittsburgh, PA | Peat Morwick, Pittsburgh, PA | Corning Glass Corp., Corning, NY | Art in Embassies Program -- U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassy to Mouritania, 1991 | University of Pittsburgh School of Dentistry, "Dorothy One", Gift of Dr. Charles Jay Miller | United States Embassy, Bogota, Colombia (Addison Ripley Gallery, Washington DC) | University of Pittsburgh, School of Nursing, Commissioned portrat of Dr. Margaret Schaeffer, Dean of School of Nursing, Ret. | University of Pittsburgh, School of Dentistry, Commissioned portrait of Dr. Edward J. Forest
SUSAN GURRENTZ, 970-920-3127, PO BOX V, ASPEN COLO 81612
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