Susan Goethel Campbell

Susan Goethel Campbell is a multi-disciplinary artist and printmaker based in metropolitan Detroit. Her process-based work considers the dynamic qualities of the built environment to include periods of growth, decline, and dormancy. Central to Campbell’s practice are questions surrounding the integration and erasure of human agency over broader global systems. She often works with ephemeral materials intended to erode and change over time. Her work is realized in formats that include prints, drawings, artist books/​objects, photographs, videos, and installations.

In tandem with Campbell’s visit to the series, the U‑M Institute for the Humanities has commissioned and will exhibit her new work, Garden Repairs, drawing from the life cycle of plants as a model for repairing landscapes ravaged by war and extreme weather events. Her regenerative brick book is filled with seeds, soil, and water, a hopeful gesture toward new life when it is broken apart. The exhibit will open following the talk and be on view through May 2, 2024.

Campbell’s work has been exhibited internationally in Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Slovenia, and throughout the United States. Her work is in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, New York Public Library, Yale University Art Gallery, Detroit Institute of Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Cranbrook Art Museum, Grand Rapids Art Museum, University of Colorado Art Museum, The Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Toledo Museum of Art, and the University of Michigan Special Collections Library. Campbell has been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Banff Centre for the Arts, Frans Masereel Centrum, Jentel Foundation, P.R.I.N.T Research Center of North Texas, Skopelos Foundation and Beisinghoff Print Residency. Campbell is the recipient of a Kresge Artist Fellowship, Creative Artist Grant, Arts Foundation of Michigan, and a grant from the Three Rivers Arts Festival in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Campbell has taught studio art at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, including on the faculty of both the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the College for Creative Studies. She has been a visiting artist in numerous institutions of higher education throughout the country. Campbell is represented by David Klein Gallery (Detroit, MI), Aspinwall Editions (Hudson, New York), and Galerie Tom Blaess (Bern, Switzerland).

Presented in partnership with the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities.

Series presenting partners: Detroit Public Television and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Radio.