About the artist
Susan Bennerstrom was born in Seattle in 1949. She studied art studio and art history at Western Washington University for three years and dropped out in order to travel extensively. She returned to WWU in her late 60s to obtain her BFA. She lives and works in Bellingham WA.
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Bennerstrom began exhibiting while living in Berkeley in the early 1970s and has never stopped. She has worked in chalk pastels, oil pastels, oil on canvas, intaglio printmaking, and has recently begun drawing in ink, colored pencil, monotype, and watercolor.
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Her work has been shown regionally and nationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her paintings are included in the collections of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Virginia Mason Hospital, the University of Washington Medical Center (all in Seattle), the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Western Washington University, and St Joseph Hospital in Bellingham, the Museum of Northwest Art in LaConner WA, the Ballinglen Museum of Contemporary Art in County Mayo, Ireland, and numerous other public and private collections.
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Bennerstrom has been the recipient of a number of awards including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, Artist Trust's SOLA Award, three Artist Trust GAP Awards, Seattle Art Museum's Betty Bowen Special Recognition Award, and the Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship.
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Seattle's Davidson Galleries, along with the University of Washington Press published the monograph Susan Bennerstrom in 2000, with essays by Sarah Clark Langager, Rod Slemmons, and Robin Updike.
CV
Solo exhibitions
2026
(UPCOMING) Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle WA
2022
Inside Out, Woodside Braseth Gallery, Seattle WA
2021
Light and Space, Jansen Art Center, Lynden WA
2019
Compass, Woodside Braseth Gallery, Seattle WA
2017
Passage, Woodside Braseth Gallery, Seattle WA
2015
Jansen Art Center, Lynden WA
Odyssey, Linda Hodges Gallery, Seattle WA
2014
Linda Hodges Gallery, Seattle WA
2013
Sojourn, Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
2012
New Paintings, Sue Greenwood Gallery, Laguna Beach CA
2011
Introduction: Sue Greenwood Gallery, Laguna Beach CA
2010
Night and Day: New Paintings, Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
2009
Bystander, Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica CA
2008
Elements, Davidson Contemporary, Seattle WA
2007
Tent-Interior-Leaf, Davidson Contemporary, Seattle WA
New Paintings, Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica CA
2006
Gage Academy of Art Gallery, Seattle WA
2005
Within, Davidson Contemporary, Seattle WA
Threshold, Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica CA
2004
River Bed, Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
Beds, Collaboration with Poet Suzanne Paola, Museum of Northwest Art, LaConner WA
Margo Jacobsen Gallery, Portland OR
2002
Existing Light: Susan Bennerstrom Retrospective, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham WA
New Paintings, Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica CA 2002 New Paintings, Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
2001
New Paintings, Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
2000
Susan Bennerstrom, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco CA
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA 1999 Susan Bennerstrom: Chalk Pastels, J. Cacciola Galleries, NYC
1999
Margo Jacobsen Gallery, Portland OR
From Here to the Horizon: Curator’s View, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham WA
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
1998
Objects and Incidents, Edward Cain Galleries, Port Townsend WA
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA 1997 Susan Bennerstrom, Ballyhugh Art & Culture Centre, County Cavan, Ireland
1997
County Courthouse Gallery, County Cavan, Ireland
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA 1996 J. Cacciola Galleries, NYC
1996
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
1995
Fletcher Gallery, Santa Fe NM 1995 Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
1994
Whatcom Museum, Bellingham WA
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
1993
Fletcher Gallery, Santa Fe NM
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
1992
Fletcher Gallery, Santa Fe NM
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
1991
Fletcher Gallery, Santa Fe NM
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
1990
Fletcher Gallery, Santa Fe MM
Port Angeles Fine Art Center, Port Angeles WA
1989
Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA
Alonso/Sullivan Gallery, Seattle WA
1988
Skagit Valley College Gallery, Mt. Vernon WA
Carnegie Art Center, Walla Walla WA
1987
Alonso/Sullivan Gallery, Seattle WA
1986
Alonso/Sullivan Gallery, Seattle WA
Selected group exhibitions
2025
Anthems in Color and Paper, Susan Bennerstrom & Kiff Slemmons, i.e. gallery, Edison WA
2024
Winter Exhibition, Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle WA
On Paper: Susan Bennerstrom, Whiting Tennis, Amy Carson, Bitters Barn, Mt Vernon
Works on Paper, curated by Kim Conaty, LBIF, Long Beach Island NJ
Series and Repetition, Site:Brooklyn Gallery NYC, online exhibition
Tieton 10 x 10 x 10, Tieton WA
Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival Exhibition, Dakota Gallery, Bellingham
2023
Contemporary Drawing, W. Wyoming College Gallery, Rock Springs WY 2023 10th Annual Living Mark, Verum Ultimum Gallery,
Portland OR, online exhibition
62nd Annual Group Show, Woodside Braseth Gallery, Seattle WA
Shape/Form/Structure, Site:Brooklyn Gallery, NYC, online exhibition 2023 10th Annual Abstract Sanctuary, Verum Ultimum
Gallery, Portland OR, online exhibition
2022
Tag You’re It, The Jewelry Library, NYC, curated by Kiff Slemmons
Drawing In All Mediums, Site:Brooklyn Gallery, NYC, online exhibition
Tieton 10 x 10 x 10, Tieton WA 2021 Tieton 10 x 10 x 10, Tieton WA
2020
Tieton 10 x 10 x 10, Tieton WA
Anatomy of a Collection, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham WA
2019
Continuum, Works from the Pruzan Collection, Museum of Northwest Art, LaConner
2016
Just Women, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham WA
2015
A Curatorial Perspective: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Whatcom Museum
2014
Fluid, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach CA
2013
Structures: Works from the Permanent Collection, Museum of NW Art, LaConner WA
2012
Tieton 10 x 10 x 10, Tieton WA
Art About Agriculture, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR
2010
Tieton 10 x 10 x 10, Tieton WA
Show of Hands: Northwest Women Artists
1980-2010
Whatcom Museum, Bellingham
2009
Small Works Show, Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica CA
2007
Constructed Worlds: Re-Visions of Reality, Loveland Museum, Loveland CO
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