LA | Susan Dory: Love’s Dart

(SANTA MONICA) Nüart Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition featuring new work by Susan Dory, on view from Nov 7 through Nov 28, 2026, at the gallery’s Bergamot Station location, with an opening reception on Saturday, Nov 7, from 3:00 - 5:00 pm.

Susan Dory’s paintings explore how color gives shape to perception. In Love’s Dart, overlapping bands of translucent paint build geometric structures around open centers. Drawing on the square as a stabilizing boundary within mandalas, Dory creates compositions that accommodate subtle shifts in depth and luminosity. Rounded corners and interrupted sequences guide the eye through arrangements that seem to change as attention moves across the surface.

Yellows, pinks, and oranges take on greater prominence in this series, alongside pale blues, greens, and darker passages. Dory brushes and pours fluid mixtures of acrylic paint and medium onto canvases laid flat, building numerous layers whose translucency preserves earlier decisions. Colors change where they overlap, and bands appear to advance or recede in relation to their surroundings.

This gradual emergence relates to Dory’s interest in the moment an idea becomes a coherent thought. Her compositions develop through testing, adjustment, and discovery, retaining the accumulated experience of their making. Open centers give the paintings a contemplative spaciousness, allowing color and structure to offer new relationships with each viewing.

Susan Dory is based in Seattle and received her BA from Iowa State University. Her honors include the Neddy Award, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and an Artist Trust Fellowship. Her work is held in collections including the Tacoma Art Museum, the Ballinglen Museum of Contemporary Art in Ireland, and the Microsoft Collection.