Suellen Rocca

One of the original members of Chicago Imagists, a group of artists active in Chicago in the 1960s, Suellen Rocca developed a system of signs, such as rings, palm trees and purposes, based on the visuals of advertising, as well as her sense of being a newlywed, young mother. Her paintings and drawings, at times, characterised as “picture writing”, often feature such signs in repetitive, hieroglyph-like patterns. Rocca exhibited her work as part of the Hairy Who and alongside artists Jim Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, and Karl Wirsum. The group’s bold and bright graphic works were seminal in transforming Chicago’s art scene, with Rocca’s works unique in their more subtle colour, texture and immediacy.