Susan R. Kirshenbaum, Artist & Curator
www.cherrypits.net
Art + Life = Both the Cherries and the Pits
Welcome to Cherry Pits Art!
People say “Your art is classical, a bit like Matisse. Pretty.” But I say my work is subversive – that I’m pushing figurative art boundaries. Sometimes I even use a Barbie to help me tell my most personal, feminist narrative.
EXHIBITIONS
GREEN – Juried group exhibition at Arc Gallery (SF), presented by NCWCA | Reception: July 26, 7-9pm, Artist's Talk (Zoom): Aug 13, 7-8pm, Curatorial Tour (In-Person): Aug 16, 1:30-3:30 | July 26-Aug 22
“Moody Blues” my digital original collage is printed on aluminum and custom framed (edition 1/1, 48w x 24h), will be shown for the first time in “Thin Skin, Life’s Layers”. ©2026srkirshenbaum
Black & White Projects Presents Thin Skin, Life’s Layers, A New Exhibition by Susan R. Kirshenbaum
Opening Reception: Saturday, Aug 8, 2–5pm | Artist's Talk: Saturday, Sep 19, 2–5pm | Closing Party: Saturday, Oct 24, 2–5pm
What does the body remember after decades of living? What remains visible when time has thinned the skin but deepened the spirit?
Black & White Projects presents Thin Skin, Life's Layers, a new exhibition by Susan R. Kirshenbaum that gathers together more than twenty large-scale figurative collages from her Women and Nature series. Created over the last nine years, these works invite viewers into a conversation about aging, vulnerability, liberation, and the quiet power of inhabiting one's own body.
Each artwork begins with a life drawing—a swift gesture captured from a living model. From there, Kirshenbaum builds each composition by weaving together her drawings with original abstract paintings and photographs made during her travels. Layer by layer, image by image, the works become landscapes of memory where the human figure and the natural world exist as one continuous story. Some figures carry tenderness. Others carry defiance. Some seem wrapped in warmth while others stand exposed with remarkable calm. Across the exhibition, the body is never presented as an object to be observed, but as a living archive—holding desire, strength, anger, sensuality, joy, fragility, and resilience all at once.
For Kirshenbaum, this exhibition is also deeply personal. It represents nearly a decade of work and a return to full-time artistic practice after forty years. She reflects on aging as a continual layering and shedding of experience. Physical skin becomes thinner with time, yet emotional life often grows richer and more complex. The artist asks what it means to become increasingly visible to oneself while becoming less visible to society. Can aging itself become an act of quiet resistance? Can simply existing—fully, honestly, and without apology—be a form of activism?
Working across drawing, photography, and digital collage, Kirshenbaum explores body liberation, feminism, nudity, flesh, fragility, nature, and the Rights of Nature movement. Rather than offering conclusions, Thin Skin, Life's Layers opens a space where viewers are invited to linger with questions about identity, visibility, belonging, and our shared relationship with the living world.
About Susan R. Kirshenbaum
Encouraged from childhood to pursue art and photography, Susan R. Kirshenbaum studied and worked at her family's art school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Throughout her career she has been an artist, educator, administrator, marketer, and active participant in both the Bay Area arts community and women's business organizations. Thin Skin, Life's Layers marks an important chapter in her return to a full-time studio practice.
Exhibition Dates: Aug 8, 2026 – Oct 24, 2026 | 2830 20th St, Studio 106, San Francisco 94110 | Open Fridays 1–5pm & Wed–Sat by appointment: Contact Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen, Arts | Culture | Community (415) 786-1351 | https://blackandwhiteprojects.com/
OPEN STUDIOS
Art Explosion Fall Open Studios – Sept 11-13, 744 Alabama St (#209), Friday 7-10pm, Sat & Sun 12 Noon-5pm
Artspan Open Studios – Oct 3-4, Art Explosion, 744 Alabama St (#209), Sat & Sun 12 Noon-5pm
Art Explosion Winter Holiday Event – Dec 13, 12-5pm, 744 Alabama St (#209)
AFFILIATIONS
ALL LINKS: https://linktr.ee/SusanRKirshenbaum
Professional Development Chair, Board of Directors, Northern California Women's Caucus for Art, (NCWCA)
Founding Artist Member, The Invisibility Collective | Art Consultant, Wessling Contemporary Gallery
Read my May-June Travel & Art Blog
COMING IN 2027!
I am solo curating my next annual invitational group show of Bay Area Figurative Artists at the Sausalito Center for the Arts (SCA) in Jan-Feb 2027. Between 2022–2026, I co-curated and exhibited many versions of this show with Catherine Merrill. Read about the 2026 show here: “Drawn from Life”
JUST PAST
In the Fall of 2025 I co-curated (with Gallerist Tony Wessling) “Will the Circle be Unbroken” Retrospective Painting Show by the late Randall Sexton.
Wessling Contemporary | https://fineartconnoisseur.com/2025/08/randall-sexton-retrospective-will-the-circle-be-unbroken/
SEE & BE SEEN
“Deep Longing”, a mixed media digital original collage print face-mounted acrylic block (ed 1/1), was juried into the NCWCA exhibition in March 2026.
Before the 2026 Start-Up Fair we had a print signing party.
Matching ensemble to my Fem-mini art (left photo) on the wall
The B&W Projects Room at Hotel del Sol in front of my print, “Flower Bed” (ed 10/10) in our series “Archives of Radical Joy” at Start-Up Art Fair, SF, April 2026.
“Red Forest” was selected for the juried show, “Women Rule the Wall”, SFWA Gallery for Women’s History Month.
Art Explosion and Miro Studios enjoyed Spring Open Studios in April 2026. Hanging here with my Miro neighbor.
With Linda Joy, fellow NCWCA Board Member and co-exhibitor
During Q1 we took a trip to San Diego and the desert, to NYC and art shows & fairs, then we traveled to Europe for the month of May.
MEXICO CITY
Here I am at our hotel heading out to CDMX ARTWEEK and Art Fairs (Zona Maco and more!) Feb 4-10, 2025. Yes, that’s a Barbie I’m holding, my iconic companion. And that’s my artwear, everywhere.
CITY HALL
CURATED INTO SF CITY HALL (2X): Here I am with the group curated by Joseph Abbati at the opening of our show at City Hall in Rafael Mandelman’s office. Through April 2025. I was also invited back to show with SFWA at Supervisor Myrna Melgar’s office in Spring 2026.
TECHNIQUE Photopolymer printing first (left side); on vintage Japanese hankie; added special mix pink ink (right side) with an acrylic plate; added chine colle of Japanese paper (top right). 3x on press. Exhibited at Startup Art Fair, April 2026.
NEW
“Golden Boy” was first shown in “Second Summer” at the SFWA Gallery.
NEW
This panoramic black and white photo, entitled Old Fashioned Appliances, I took at an obscure museum in remote Northern Italy. It was recently selected for the Patterns show at the SFWA Gallery.
NEW
Women and Nature: Red Bird. See it in my solo show at Black & White Projects in Aug 2026!
SOLD!
Connecting with Nature series: Reflecting Pool is a 20x20 inch, framed metal print, edition 1/1. I was shown in Jan 2025 at SFWA Gallery.
DRAWN FROM LIFE, JANUARY 2025 SLIDESHOW
Here/Now: The Bay Area Figurative Movement Grows: Today’s narrative, expressive phase of the Bay Area figurative movement is about reflecting on the world we live in. We are telling storiesthat reach beyond academic achievement and accuracy. We are truth seeking. Sometimes we embrace the unbeautiful. Or create beauty for its own sake. Our work might reflect on our personal struggles or reflect the tensions that surround our lives. We are presenting a range of select artists who focus on the figure and are living and working in The Bay Area. Each is grounded in the figurative movement yet continues to explore and express their humanity through portrayals of the form in context. | Co-Curators: Susan R. Kirshenbaum and Catherine Merrill | EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Joseph Abbati | Doug Andelin | Isidoro Angeles | Adam Caldwell | Sandy Frank | Tebby George | Mary Graham | Susan R. Kirshenbaum | Calvin Lai | Kim Larson | Catherine Merrill | Stephen Namara | Diane Olivier | May Shei | Sandra Speidel | The Drawing Group: Dwight Been | Henry Bridges | Daisy Eneix | John Goodman | Susan R. Kirshenbaum | Pamela Mooney | Alex Rosmarin | Peter Steinhart | Barbara Tonnesen | Dieter Tremp | Opening Reception with Live Music & Refreshments - Sat, Jan 11, 3-6pm | Closing Party with Peter Steinhart Book Talk & Roving Model (Free Life Drawing) - Sat, Feb 1, 3-6pm, THE UNDRESSED ART: Why We Draw | Art Tour - Participating Artists’ Talks - Jan 18, 11-1pm | NCWCA Member’s Tour - Jan 24, 11-12 | May Shei Free Painting Workshop - Jan 25, 2-4 | Sausalito Center for the Arts (SCA) 750 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA 94965 | Open Wednesday - Sunday, 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM | Article about the exhibit by Jonathan Farrell Sausalito Center for the Arts hosts 2nd annual Figurative Art exhibit | Jan 8-Feb 2, 2025
MORE
INTERVIEW: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-susan-r-kirshenbaum/
SHOP: RedBubble & Spoonflower for my print on demand custom art merchandise: Srkirshenbaum.redbubble.com
WATCH: My TV interview representing SFWA Gallery: LIVE! in the Bay, KRON4: YouTube
SUPPORT: Join me on Patreon
FOLLOW: Art IG, FB, LI / Invisibility Collective IG (I have 2 FB pages – join me on my art page for updates)
FIND ME
Art Explosion, 744 Alabama St. (btw 19-20th St), #209, SF, CA
srkirshenbaum@gmail.com | https://linktr.ee/SusanRKirshenbaum (all links)
Our First Figure Show at SCA – Third Generation: The Bay Area Figurative Movement Today at Sausalito Center for the Arts (SCA): JANUARY 2024
EVENTS: Reception: Sat, Jan 20, 2-5pm: Live music, refreshments, curator talks | Artist Talks: Fri, 1/27, 11-1pm | Closing Party: Sun, Jan 28, 3-6pm: Roving art model, refreshments, artist/author Peter Steinhart talking about The Undressed Art: Why We Draw, and curator talks
CURATORS: Susan R. Kirshenbaum and Catherine Merrill | ARTISTS: Joseph Abbati, Douglas Andelin, Madelyn Covey, Jane Fisher, Mary Graham, Isidoro, Susan R. Kirshenbaum, Catherine Merrill, Stephen Namara, Diane Olivier, Sharon Paster, Fernando Reyes, Alex Rosmarin, Randall Sexton (deceased)*, May Shei, Sandra Speidel, Peter Steinhart, and Charles H. Stinson | ARTICLES ABOUT THE SHOW: See the article by Jonathan FarrellCalifornia + News and The Figurative Art Movement of The Bay Area isn’t Dead
Left: Paintings by Sandra Speidel
Right: Drawing and sculpture by Douglas Andelin
Painting and sculpture by Sharon Paster
Oil paintings by Randall Sexton*
Pastel, monoprint, and ink drawings by Diane Olivier
Paintings by Jane Fisher (left) and Madelyn Covery (right) and ceramic vase by Catherine Merrill.
Paintings by May Shei
Left to right: Mary Graham, Douglas Andelin, Fernando Reyes, Mary Graham
Paintings by Joseph Abbati
Left to right: Abbati, Kirshenbaum, Merrill, Fisher, Sexton
Mixed media paintings by Madelyn Covey
My wall of horizontal pieces: Verdant, Bed of Roses, and Bee Season, all 48wx24h, digital original collages
Catherine Merrill, my co-curator, with her ceramic sculptures (Jane Fisher’s paintings on walls).
Here I am with my new piece, Pompeii, 24wx48h, a digital original collage printed on metal, framed, one of 5 pieces in the series “Women and Nature” that is in this show.
Left: Mary Graham mask sculptures
Right: Stephen Namara mixed media
Foreground: Bronze sculptures by Charles H. Stinson
Foreground: Sculptures by Isidoro
Mixed media, paintings, and monoprints by Fernando Reyes
Last day of show events!
Partnering with SCA
My first mini-show at Sausalito Center for the Arts, in Dec 2023, preceding our group show in JAN 2024, Third Generation: The Bay Area Figurative Movement Today.
THE BEGINNING OF OUR FIGURE SHOW
“Third Generation: The Bay Area Figurative Movement Today” was our first in an annual series of winter figure shows. I invited Catherine Merrill, sculptor, ceramic artist, teacher, and curator to co-curate this exhibition with me for the first time at SFWA. Here’s an article: https://www.artandantiquesmag.com/making-the-rules/
My work (right) at SFWA Gallery in 2023 Figurative Show I co-curated, with Joseph Abbati’s work on the left.
A corner of the show with Fernando Reyes work (left) and Jane Fisher’s work (right).
The postcard has a sample of each artist’s work.
View upon entry into the gallery of the two sculptures by co-curator Catherine Merrill (ceramics) and Charles H. Stinson (bronzes).
CURATING EXHIBITIONS FOR SFWA
I retired my role as SFWA’s Exhibitions Director after five years of planning and writing our show themes and inviting our jurors. But I continued as the SFWA’s Chair of SFWA/UCSF Serenity Art Series, through Jan 2024 with co-chair Jean Brodie at UCSF’s Center for Women’s Health. We curated each show of five SFWA women artists on three floors.
A photo from our last Serenity Art Show Reception in June 2023 with current exhibiting artist Nimisha.
SFWA’s Serenity Co-Chair Jean Brodie, Chair Susan R. Kirshenbaum, and artist Chandana Srinath
Here I am talking about my work (we all did) and this show at our reception at SFWA.
CURATING SHOWS
I have found myself curating a handful of exhibitions these last few years. It may have started with the planning involved in my Invisibility Collective group shows, or I could attribute the beginnings to my work over the last several years as the Exhibitions Director for the SFWA Gallery. More recently I’ve added USCF’s Art Series, Serenity to my volunteer curatorial work which I share with co-chair, Jean Brodie, on behalf of SFWA.
And I just co-curated an independent Bay Area group show that opens on April 8 at SFWA, “Third Generation: The Bay Area Figurative Movement Today”.
INVISIBILITY COLLECTIVE SHOW
The Invisibility Collective Biennial Invitational: "Thresholds of Liminality"* December 10, 2022 – January 28, 2023, Radian Gallery, 440 Brannan St, San Francisco. Artists include The Invisibility Collective members Susan R. Kirshenbaum, Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen, Samira Shaheen, Christopher M. Tandy, and invited artists Joseph Abbati, Vin Seaman, Allan Rosenfield, Rell Rushin, Na Omi Judy Shintani, and Leif Larson.
In 2020, The Invisibility Collective presented their first invitational exhibition: Seen × Unseen at Radian. In their second exhibition: Thresholds of Liminality, artists explore the un- or under-perceived process of transition and the moments at which something might happen, cease to happen, take effect, or become true. Acting as revealers, guides, mapmakers, documenters, whisperers, and companions, the artists in this exhibition bear witness to these thresholds, centering experiences whose great meaning is undetectable by those not within the experience of transition.
*Liminal: a sensory threshold, barely perceptible or capable of eliciting a response. Liminality: a liminal state of transition between one stage and the next, especially between major stages in one’s life. In this exhibition, works in various media explore those unwitnessed or imperceptible states and experiences of transformation.
The Invisibility Collective Biennial Invitational: "Thresholds of Liminality"
THE DRAWING GROUP SHOW
The Drawing Group Show "Figure Drawing & Points of Departure" | Curated by George Krevsky, this is “Magenta/Bridget” a drawing I made (on my iPad) in our drawing group awhile back.
My long-time drawing is having a show at a new gallery, 2121 Art Space. Here I am (below) with artists Alex Rosmarin and Barbara Tonnesen at the opening reception in June 2023.
Discussing my work with our curator George Krevsky at the reception.
IN THE MEDIA
More links to press coverage here.
At KRON4 TV with Chase Roberts, publicist for SFWA when I was interviewed on behalf of San Francisco Women Artists Gallery (SFWA) on KRON4 TV: LIVE! in the Bay.
I was interviewed live on Aug 17, 2022 on behalf of San Francisco Women Artists Gallery (SFWA) on KRON4 TV: LIVE! in the Bay with the gorgeous and charming host, Olivia Horton.
SERENITY ART SERIES AT UCSF
SFWA began a new curatorial partnership with UCSF Center of Excellence for Women’s Health at the Women’s Health Center in SF in 2021. I’m the Chair for the Serenity series.
We exhibit three times a year, showing works by five SFWA artists, one per floor, in the Women’s Health Center.
Our first show opened in January 2022. SFWA selected member artists were: Valerie Corbin, Marie Massey, Susan Proehl, and myself. Learn more: https://sfwomenartists.org/serenity/ and https://womenshealth.ucsf.edu/coe/serenity-i-am-resilient
We had a lovely Closing Reception of our Jan-May 2023 Serenity Art Series curated group exhibition, Radiant. There were five artists on five floors: Barbara McLain, Deena Smith, Chandana Srinath, Melissa Park, and Tiffany Conway. This is our first reception since Covid began. UCSF Women’s Health Center, 2356 Sutter St, SF 94115
THE DRAWING ROOM GALLERY
In the corridor at UCSF my work lines the wall.
SFWA’s curatorial debut of the ongoing exhibition three times a year. our first show in the series, “Serenity: I am Resilient”, included my work at UCSF’s Women’s Health Center in SF.
View down the corridor of UCSF.
In the corridor at UCSF my work lines the wall.
LOOK BACK: 2020-2021: “SEEN X UNSEEN”, FIRST EXHIBITION OF THE INVISIBILITY COLLECTIVE
After several months of lively Zoom exchanges from coast to coast, The Invisibility Collective launched our blogsite in September and now we launched our first group exhibition. “Seen X Unseen is at Radian Gallery (SF) through December 2020.
I’ve been thinking about invisibility for a long time. Personally I’ve experienced this phenomenon as an aging woman. Now it has expanded to include so much more.
Who do you think of when you think of Invisible people? Have you ever felt invisible? How would you describe yourself in one sentence?
Send me your thoughts.
“Seen x Unseen”, the first group exhibition by The Invisibility Collective & Invited Artists | @ Radian Gallery (SF) | Dec 5-Jan 24, 2021
COLLECTIVE MEMBER ARTISTS: Lonnie Graham | Susan R. Kirshenbaum | Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen | Samira Shaheen | Angela Tirrell
INVITED ARTISTS: Mary Graham | Sophia Green | Rell Rushin | Sawyer Rose | John Stone | Christopher M. Tandy (Courtesy of Glass Rice Gallery, SF) | Nancy Willis
SELECTED IMAGES
My See-Through Us series of five chiffon panels imprinted with my digital original art.
Most of this same installation piece is on display at Arc in Nov-Dec 2021.
Samira Shaheen’s Crossroads mixed media painting.
John Stone’s Is a....
Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen’s Alter.
Mary Graham’s pieces - painting plus video of sound performance.
Sawyer Rose’s installation and portrait, Loeta.
Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen performing a ritual at her alter installation piece.
Lonnie Graham’s installation, Ancestral Resonance.
Sawyer Rose’s 3 works: Bety, a sculpture and a photo portrait and A Day’s Work: Gender Pay Gap Calendar.
“And You?” by Susan R. Kirshenbaum is an interactive piece to write responses directly onto my digital original art print. Annice Jacoby is writing her thoughts on opening day of “Seen X Unseen”.
Barbie on the Cusp: Phases 1 -4
2019: PHASE 1
“Barbie on the Cusp” debuted at Pacific Felt Factory (PFF) in October 2019 during a Residency with Black & White Projects as a multimedia installation and Book 1
2019-2020 + COVID: PHASE 2
Second installation of “Barbie on the Cusp” photographic works shown at PFF’s Main Gallery
I created a photo-based series of Barbie “on location” in Spain, France, and Yosemite National Park (California): Book 2: Europe & Yosemite Trips and Book 3: Japan Trip. I produced these books and reprinted/updated the first illustrated version.
2021 & COVID: PHASE 3
2022-2026: The Series Continues
COVID
Fall-Winter: Life continues in a Covid state of alert, riding the rollercoaster of surges and Election Season. Listen closely. I miss the escape of a warm sea.
COVID - Spring: This piece is online now at Lightspace and Time, May-June Show, themed Created in Isolation, and it won a Special Recognition Award.
COVID - Summer: Barbie and I couldn’t go outside to demonstrate - so we did what we could do to make a statement. See my 20” square print in the Oct 2021 Open Studio Show at SFWA.
Order from me directly! Get the entire series of three for $70. Limited editions, signed. Available from City Art Coop Gallery through Sept 2021 and at the receptions at SFWA Gallery on Oct 2 and 3, 2021.
These make great gifts and are always for sale at my shows and in my studio: art greeting cards, small prints, and books. Perfect for Valentines Day!
MY ARTWEAR
It’s the new way to dress! See many versions of my art for sale on textiles & merchandise @ REDBUBBLE
Yes - the socks DO match the top! In pink, orange, and black. @ REDBUBBLE
ILLUSTRATION
This image is from my first Barbie on the Cusp (Phase 1) book, later enlarged as wall art for exhibition in Phase 2.
ILLUSTRATION
This image is from my first Barbie on the Cusp (Phase 1) zine, later enlarged as wall art for exhibition in Phase 2.
ANOTHER COVID PROJECT - THE NAKED TRUTH VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
Draped in my art series titled “See Through Us” created for the “Seen X Unseen” exhibition by The Invisibility Collective, Radian Gallery, SF, Dec 2020
As a figurative artist who is used to drawing live models in person on a regular basis, the pandemic led me to discover new ways to satisfy my need to keep up my drawing while supporting the life model community. I did not expect to enjoy drawing virtually but it turns out that I love it – and as a bonus, it’s like virtual travel too, since I’ve been attending sessions held all around the world.
Model-led sessions are a fairly recent development in my experience, but drawing groups have been a part of my art practice for a long time. Both types of groups are helping models survive under impossible circumstances. In addition to zoom model drawing sessions I attend my regular drawing group virtually. Twice a week I draw fellow artists heads and hands as we take turns posing. As a result of these Covid-inspired virtual sessions, I’ve gotten to know more artists, see their newly created work, meet models, and maintain my art practice. At the same time I was discovering the world of virtual drawing I was feeling a greater need to connect artists to delve into a subject that has plagued me for a long time, and people seemed to be more available than usual. I began a series of bi-coastal conversations and together we formed The Invisibility Collective, which organized a year-end gallery exhibition in San Francisco. These powerful and enduring outcomes wouldn’t have happened without the pandemic. Read an update about this show on my Summer Blog: Lefty.
2020 FIRST QUARTER - COVID
Until Sheltering in Place (SIP) kicked in on March 16, there was a ton of art activity and planning for 2020. In January there were art shows and Art Week in SF. I attended both big art fairs - Untitled and FOG Art & Design. It was a great dose of international art and design which just might hold me until my next art fair. Now they are all postponed!
Reception at SFWA. Photo by DeWitt Cheng 2019, SF
SOCIAL
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