Vivian Suter

Vivian Suter is a Swiss-Argentinian painter, who has lived and worked on a former coffee plantation in Panajachel, Guatemala since 1982. Her home and studio is built high up in the mountains, surrounded by rainforests and below, sits the volcano-ringed Lake Atitlán. When Suter first moved to this location, she began making incredibly precise, geometric compositions, yet Hurricane Stan in 2005 dramatically shifted her working methods. In the destruction of the hurricane a landslide had damaged many of her works. Whilst attempting to repair these paintings, Suter became interested in the imprints nature had left upon her canvases, dismantling her position as the sole author of these creations. From this point on, Suter started to work outside, gesturally painting the lush leaves, mountain silhouettes and magnetic sunsets that she was immersed in. Openly inviting a sense of collaboration with her immediate habitat, Suter mixes her oils, pigments and acrylics with rainwater and leaves her unstretched canvases out to hang amongst the trees. They inevitably collect mud and markings from nature, but these additions breathe a sense of vitality into each canvas. Reminiscent of the work of Helen Frankenthaler or Etel Adnan, these joyful works pulse with immense adoration for nature. Moving in and out of figuration and abstraction, they capture the sense of intimacy Suter has cultivated with Panajachel and the evident gratitude she has for this slice of the rainforest.