Susu Attar

Susu Attar (b. 1982, Baghdad, Iraq) is a multimedia artist who was raised in Los Angeles, where she currently lives. Her practice explores the ways images of embodied subjects circulate and shape narrative and how this digitized circulation impacts the meaning-making potential of pictures. Ultimately, throughout the various manifestations of her work, Attar leads the viewer on a search for moments of empathy and transformation. The viewer is engaged in a meditation on the fundamental importance of bearing witness, the work of art (its status as object and action), and the hope that lies in the transformative potential of the artistic gesture.

Attar’s work has been included in exhibitions in Montreal, Mexico City, San Francisco, Dubai, and Minneapolis, among other cities. In 2018, she held two artist residencies in Los Angeles: one at The Main Museum, and the other as one of the inaugural participants in the +LAB Artist Residency through the Little Tokyo Service Center. She was also a finalist for the 2018 Los Angeles Artadia Award. Attar’s practice extends to theatrical production and exhibition curating. Notably, she is a member of SEPIA Art Collective, a women of color art collective whose work includes a traveling exhibition, ICONIC: Black Panther, in which artists respond to the legacy of the Black Panther Party. She has also co-produced and designed Haram, an experimental theatrical production inspired by the poetry of Dr. Maher Hathout. She holds a BA from San Francisco State University in Painting and Conceptual Information Art.