Susanna Samanek is a Czech/Canadian visual artist currently residing in Prague. She has a passion for travel and discovery and has lived on three continents.
She met Anna Ingleby and puppets in Indonesia, which has led to an inspiring and creative friendship and collaboration, resulting in shadow puppet characters for Alice & the White Rabbit, The Lizard that Woz, Aladdin, Jungle Book & Pandora’s Magical Box .
She was born in Brno in the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia at that time). When she was a child her family emigrated to Ontario, Canada. She studied fine art at the Ontario College of Art and art history and theory at the University Of Toronto.
She started exhibiting her work in the 80’s in Toronto and went on to exhibit extensively in Canada and the US before moving to Asia in search of new inspiration and art traditions. She immersed herself in Asian art and society in Indonesia, Thailand, The Philippines, Korea and Japan. This period of her travel and research led to new development in her work, culminating in successful shows in both Korea and Indonesia. Her travels in search of inspiration have brought her back to Europe, where she has a permanent installation at Ars Natura in Kassel, Germany.
The first public exposure to her work in Prague was her Tailor Mades series at the National Gallery. Whereas her work in Asia was about new inspiration and external discovery, her work in Europe is now about introspection and rediscovery. What has remained constant is her ability to closely observe and absorb her environmental and social surroundings, and for this to clearly manifest itself through her work.
