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Susanna Heller was (b. in New York City in 1956), raised in Montreal from age 7, and studied art in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was a landed immigrant in Canada until 2006. She is an artist (painter), currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She exhibits her work regularly in New York and in Toronto. She is known equally in Canada and the United States for her contributions to contemporary art as a painter. Her work is most well known for depictions of cities, primarily New York City.

Life and Work

Susanna Heller received her BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, B.F.A. in 1978. At NSCAD, she studied under Gerald Ferguson, Eric Fischl,Mira Schor, Paterson Ewen, Robert Berlind, Garry Kennedy, Dan Graham, Lawrence Weiner, and others. Between 1975-78, she also worked with visiting artists such as June Leaf, Richards Jarden, Michael Snow, Laurie Anderson, David Askevold, and others.

In 1978 she went back to New York City, and has lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn since 1981. She worked for several years as a waitress, in construction, and as a security guard and cleaner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1981 she received her first Canada Council “B” grant.

In 1984 she lived for a year at the Cite International, in Paris after receiving a one year residency grant from the Canada Council.

In 1989, Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery mounted a solo exhibition of Susanna Heller’s called Nova Scotia Paintings that was curated by Gerald Ferguson.

In 2003 she had a one person Exhibit at the London Museum, London, Ontario, entitled “from Here”.

Susanna Heller had a studio on the 91st floor of the World Trade Centre from 1998 to 1999. This studio was provided as part of a 15-month long artists’ residency called World Views, organized by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Following 2001, she executed paintings based on the tragedy of September 11, 2001 and of the remaining ruins of the World Trade Centre that were exhibited in numerous public and independent galleries.

In 2010, her husband William Difazio fell ill to necratizing fasciitis spawning a new series of work depicting the tragic personal event and culminated in two major exhibits, Intensive Care, at the Mount Saint Vincent University Art gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Phantom Pain, at Magnan Metz Gallery in New York City, NY

She currently lives and works in Greenpoint Brooklyn,NY.

Recognitions and Honors 

2005 The Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant Award

2002 Canada Council Travel Grant

1997 Artist in Residence: Pooch Cove, Newfoundland

1993 Artist in Residence\Workshop, Saskatoon, SK (jointly sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan & Mendel Art Gallery

1992 The National Endowment for the Arts (Painting)

1988 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (Painting)

1986 Arts Grant “B”, Canada Council Fellowship, Leighton Art Colony, Banff, AB

1985 Arts Grant “B”, Canada Council

1984 Ontario Arts Council Grant

1983 Project Cost Grant, Canada Council

Paris Studio Competition, One Year Residence, Canada Council

Millay Colony Residence, Fellowship

1982 Arts Grant “B”, Canada Council

1980 Arts Grant “B”, Canada Council

1978 Project Cost Grant, Canada Council

Citations