Susan O’Malley

born in 1976 in Mountain View, California, USA, lives and works in San Francisco Bay Area, USA

In her socially-based projects, Susan O’Malley uses simple and recognizable tools of engagement – offering Pep Talks, asking for advice from strangers, installing roomfuls of inspirational posters, distributing flyers in neighborhood mailboxes, conducting doodle competitions at high schools – in order to offer entry points into the understood, and sometimes humorous, interactions of everyday life. Interested in shifting these otherwise mundane exchanges into heightened experiences, O’Malley’s projects rely on the back-and-forth between herself and others in the creation of the artwork. Ultimately O’Malley’s projects aspire to incite hope, optimism and a sense of interconnectedness in our lives.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, O’Malley received her MFA from California College of the Arts’ Social Practice Area. As both an artist and curator, she has participated in programs and exhibitions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as well as internationally in Denmark and Poland.

What do contemporary people need art for?
We need art in our contemporary lives because it is a reflection of our world. Art can shift how we see and think about the everything around us, whether this means seeing the beauty and connectedness of the everyday or being awakened to injustice in our world.

Why do YOU create art?
Making art gives me courage to be vulnerable – talk to strangers, put myself in awkward situations, meet new people etc. It is a practice of possibility and discovery – while I may not have the answers,
I can make connections, ask questions and actively create something.