Suzi Ferrer

Born Susan Nudelman in New York City, Suzi Ferrer (1940–2006) became a pioneering visual artist during her decade-long stay in Puerto Rico. Her transgressive work, which coincided with the second wave of feminism, challenged gender roles and experimented with contemporary materials while confronting observers with their stereotypes about sex and desire.

This abridged version of the original exhibition at Museo de Arte y Diseño de Miramar in 2021–22 maps out Ferrer’s career, influences, and aesthetic evolution chronologically, from her time as a Cornell BFA student (class of 1962) to her transformation into a critical avant-garde artist in mid-1970s Puerto Rico. It features recently discovered works, as well as archival material from the Cornell Daily Sun and Cornell Alumni Newsletter, exhibition catalogues, photographs, and personal annotations that clarify the artist’s intentions, conceptual concerns, and creative processes.

Ferrer’s art practice was socially engaged and theoretically infused with issues still pertinent five decades after the works were produced. Most of the work was only exhibited publicly once or, in a few cases, twice during her lifetime, and subsequently relegated to storage for nearly fifty years. Recent public policies increasing restrictions on female bodies make Ferrer’s themes more relevant than ever as indicators of the significance of body autonomy. This exhibition joins the continuum of a worldwide rediscovery, reinstatement, and legacy preservation of female artists previously and deliberately excluded from art historical narratives.

Curated by Melissa M. Ramos Borges, PhD, Suzi Ferrer was first presented at Museo de Arte y Diseño de Miramar in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Its presentation at the Johnson Museum was organized by Andrea Inselmann, the Gale and Ira Drukier Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and supported by the Mary Hyde Field Endowment, the Jan Abrams Exhibition Endowment, and the Russell ’77 and Diana Hawkins Exhibition Fund.