Susanna Carlisle + Bruce Hamilton

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A sculpture of bare tree branches mounted on a circular wooden base, featuring several origami birds perched on the trees. The branches and birds are predominantly black and white, creating a stark contrast against the plain, light-colored background.
Hexagonal display structure with three circular screens, each showing different close-up images of insects, isolated on a black background.
A high-contrast monochrome image depicting a group of gondolas moored on a calm water surface, with ghostly light reflections and a dark night sky scattered with faint lights, captured by Susanna Carlisle.
A vibrant, textured textile featuring intricate, tribal-like patterns in black, white, and orange hues displayed against a dark background with reflections on either side, conceptualized by Susanna Carlisle and Bruce Hamilton.
A traditional textile artwork featuring a depiction of a mythical scene with several figures, displayed against a dark background adorned with subtle patterns.
A square reflective frame mounted on a wall with a central glass section depicting a distorted image of a street scene, including "Bruce Hamilton" and a squirrel, as viewed through a curved glass jar.
A framed artwork on a wall by Susanna Carlisle and Bruce Hamilton displaying an image of a tiny figure perceived through the distorted lens of a glass jar, generating a surreal, dreamlike effect.
An abstract painting with vibrant brush strokes and blurred features, resembling a figure, displayed in a clear glass frame. The artwork is vivid in color, predominantly orange and black.
A digital image of an interlaced hand projected inside a clear glass jar, creating a distorted and abstract visual effect with a dark background.

Susanna Carlisle + Bruce Hamilton

Born: 1943, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 1945–2024, Montreal, Canada

Biography and Information

Biography
Susanna Carlisle and Bruce Hamilton are new media artists working with video, sculpture, architecture, and computer programming. Combining their fascination with technology and their backgrounds as architect and carpenter, Carlisle and Hamilton works often incorporate a video element with 3-Dimensional constructions. Concerned with human’s contributions to climate change, their work often draws attention to natural disasters and the displacement of people, plants, and animals.

Susanna Carlisle and Bruce Hamilton have been collaborating in life and practice for over 40 years. Carlisle has a Masters in Architecture and Hamilton has a Masters of Communication in Graphics, both from the University of Pennsylvania. Over the course of their career they have worked as artist assistants for artists like Steina and Woody Vasulka and Bruce Nauman. Their time with the Vasulkas piqued their interest in new media and heavily influenced their practice. Carlisle and Hamilton have exhibited at venues in US, Europe, Asia and Australia and received funding from NM Arts, NEA, and Albuquerque 1% for Arts. They live and work outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the house they designed and built.

“Spinnaker” is an abstract “drawing” of a sail boat. It is up to the viewer to interpret its meaning. It can be a ghost ship, a yacht, a racing craft, whatever strikes the imagination

The “Vanishing- Bees” video sculpture comes from our concern about vanishing bee colonies brought about by climate change, natural disasters, pesticides, and habitat destruction. Bees evolved from carnivorous wasps over 100 million years ago along with the appearance of flowering plants. Since that time, bees have become a primary pollinator of the animal kingdom. Worldwide, about one third of the human diet comes from pollinated plants. Today bees are highly challenged. – Carlisle and Hamilton

Education
Susanna Carlisle
1973 Master of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
1970 Bachelor of Arts, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
1963-1964 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Bruce Hamilton
1970 Master of Communication in Graphics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
1967 Bachelor of Commerce, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario

Selected Exhibitions and Installations
2024
Trees, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Currents 2024- Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM
Threatened, Patterns in Nature, Fritz Family Digital Window, Vladem Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2023
Currents 2023- Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM

2022
Susanna Carlisle + Bruce Hamilton: Passages, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Currents 2022- Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM

2021
(Re)Opened, Kouri + Corrao Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
currents 2021- Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM

2020
Be Counted, Axle Art, Santa Fe, NM
Silver Lining, Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
International Endoscopic Film Festival, Axle Art, Santa Fe, NM

2019
currents 2019 – Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM
Group Show, galleryFritz, Santa Fe, NM

2018
Vanishing Point: New Media Work, galleryFritz, Santa Fe, NM
currents 2018 – Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM

2017
Cross Pollination, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
currents 2017 – Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM
Taking Back Orange, Santa Fe Collective, Artifact Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2016
currents 2016 – Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM
Past Present, Phil Space, Santa Fe, NM
Readymade, Santa Fe, NM

2015
My Spirit Animal, Santa Fe Collective, Santa Fe, NM
Exhibition for the opening of the new gallery space, Yares Art Projects, Santa Fe, NM
currents 2015 – Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM
Axle Indoors at Peters Projects, Peters Projects, Santa Fe, NM

2014
currents 2014 – Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM
Armory Show revisited, Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM

2013
Energy Fields, an installation of video sculptures, Yares Art Projects, Santa Fe, NM
currents 2013 – Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe. NM
Runaways Two, an installation of video projections through blown glass, presented in Alcove 12.8, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Corona, an installation of video projection with bowls filled with carborundum and spices, presented in Cumulous Skies: The Enduring Modernist Aesthetic in New Mexico, Community Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2012
NOW + ART, Yares Art Projects, Santa Fe, NM
Century of the Child: Growing by Design 1900-2000, Museum of Modern Art, NY, NY
currents 2012 – Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM
TIME: Temporary Installations Made for the Environment – creation of a Star Map – a grant awarded by NM Arts and the Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, AZ

2011
Runaways, a solo show of video projections on glass, NM Arts Centennial Project Space, Santa Fe, NM currents 2011 – Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe NM
18 Days, Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
Annual Screening, Ottica, London, UK

2010
Annual Screening, Ottica, London, UK
Moving Stills, Axle Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
currents 2010—video installations, screenings, performance, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, NM
Video as Object, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
Heart this!, a benefit for Esperanza Women’s Shelter, curated by David Solomon, Jay Etkin Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2009
Cutting Edge, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art
Projected Light, The Santa Fe Complex, Santa Fe, NM
Manipulated Image, The Santa Fe Complex, Santa Fe, NM

2008
Water Planet, New Mexico State Capitol Rotunda, Santa Fe
Elements, Video Sculptures, Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
currents Video Group Exhibition, Salon MarGraff, Tesuque, NM

2007
Seeing Red, group show, Gallery Zipp, Glorieta, NM

Residencies, Grants, Awards and Commissions
2019 Artist Residency, Emily Harvey Foundation, Venice, Italy
2018 Artist Residency, Fondation Laurenz Haus, Basel, Switzerland
2017 Artist Residency, Emily Harvey Foundation, Venice, Italy
2012 TIME: Temporary Installations Made for the Environment – creation of a Star Map – a grant awarded by NM Arts and the Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, AZ
2012 Artist’s Fellowship, New Mexico Experimental Glass Workshop, Santa Fe, NM
2011 NM Arts, Art in Public Places, grant to create an installation for the NM Arts Centennial Project Space
1991-90 New Vistas A sensory play and climbing sculpture for special needs children. Santa Fe, NM
1989-87 Santa Fe Children’s Museum A sensory sculpture funded in part by a grant from the New Mexico Arts Division. Santa Fe, NM
1986 Art in Public Places 1% for Art, Sculpture for Carrie Tingley Hospital. Albuquerque, NM
1982-9 Artist in Residence – State of New Mexico A variety of visual art residencies were conducted at sites throughout the state.

Selected Video Festival Participation
Invideo, Milan, 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001
Thailand New Media Art Festival, Bankok, 2006, 2005, 2004
VAD Festival, Girona, Spain, 2006, 2004, 2003
Electrofringe New Media Art Festival 2005, New Castle, NSW, Australia, 2005
Invideo in Europe, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2005
Santa Fe Film Festival, Santa Fe, NM, 2005, 2004
Switch Media, Chiang Mai University Art Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2004
Against the Wall, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 2004
Rencontres Internationales, Paris and Berlin, 2003, 2001
Tirana International Film Festival, Tirana, Albania, 2003
Experimental Film Festival, The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA, 2003
Detroit International Video Festival, Detroit, MI, 2003
WRO 01, Wroclaw, Poland, 2001
Festival Video Estavar-Llivia, France, 2001

Press
2018
Grace Parazzoli, Water-logged Venice: Susanna Carlisle and Bruce Hamilton’s “Reflections”, Pasatiempo in the Santa Fe New Mexican, June 8
L.E. Brown, Interview: Bruce Hamilton & Susanna Carlisle, descent of man, May 27

2017
Jenn Shapland, Review: Cross Pollination, Southwest Contemporary, October 1
NMPBS ¡COLORES!: Science and Art with Susanna Carlisle and Bruce Hamilton, August 21
Ann Landi, Susanna Carlisle and Bruce Hamilton, Vasari21, June 3

2013
Michael Abatemarco, Waves of Color, Pasatiempo in the Santa Fe New Mexican, August 30

Press Release
2024 Trees at Richard Levy Gallery
2022 Susanna Carlisle + Bruce Hamilton: Passages at Richard Levy Gallery