Susana Aldanondo (b. 1976) is an Argentine-American painter. She was born in Lomas de Zamora, Buenos Aires and came to NYC when she was a teen.

Currently completing a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) at the New York Academy of Art, the graduate art school founded by Andy Warhol in Tribeca, New York. She also completed an Artist Residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

She is a graduate of the Fine Arts Diploma Certificate at The Art Students League of New York

The Art Students League of New York is where other artists such as Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly, Yayoi Kusama, Georgia O’Keefe, among others also studied. There, Aldanondo was a recipient of the Merit Scholarship that is also associated with Cy Twombly, Norman Rockwell and other artists who went on to become blue chip artists.

It is said amongst art professionals, that those who are handpicked for the scholarship awards join the line of recognition. While there, Aldanondo studied with renowned abstract art masters Larry Poons, Ronnie Landfield,, focusing on color, abstract design ideas, painting and sketching from live models, and for the past two years, also exploring other mediums such as ceramics with Yasumitsu Morito. She also gained inspiration and guidance into abstract expressionist sculpture ideas by Frank Stella, whom Aldanondo admires and met years ago.

After meeting fellow artist and friend Ron Davis in a class, she was inspired to explore geometrical abstraction, and received guidance from Davis on color and technique during that time. According to Davis, Susana ‘is the real deal, she successfully addresses pictorial issues mastering color and space throughout the plane. Susana is also a kind artist who shares a sense of camaraderie with me and my wife.” - Ron Davis

Susana explores the ‘here and now’ and the relationship between place, music, and identity. 
Aldanondo’s work takes you into a symphonic repertoire of visual expressions, informed by the compositions of renowned music maestros, as well as contemporary music. In an energetic dance between lines and color, she guides the eye through a rhythmic journey. She often paints to music, evoking the harmonious interplay of spontaneous lines and color, leading to a composition that connects music into the visual realm.  Music as the most abstract of art forms, though she successfully weaves and translates her unique vision onto her canvases through a compelling linear, often colorful dynamics.

She is a courageous art professional challenging the norms, and the stigma often associated with street artists, an advocate for those who are seen as powerless or thought of as ‘less than’ she takes this opportunity to educate the viewer.
She reminds us that fine art can and must be made in any place where the artist feels a connection, in her case, it is in the places she loves and where she feels welcomed, and she has found that place in the public spaces of SoHo, New York.
She can often be found painting nonrepresentational work in the public spaces of New York City.

Her practice encompasses a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, and sculpture. 
She is known for addressing issues of marginalization and exclusion, and taking on an important social role of helping unheard voices heard and empowered. 

Aldanondo draws inspiration from her Latin-American roots’ of Buenos Aires’ ‘fileteado’ as a starting point for her gestural abstract paintings that reinterpret her own experience as an immigrant and new generation of Americans. 

Her process shifts the narrative away from dominant stories while creating new spaces to celebrate the beauty of every day life, creating a new vision of fate, notions of home and belonging, in the process.   Here too, music plays a vital role.
Using her own story as the starting point, her work raises questions regarding identity, migration, belonging, and visibility. 
In her own words: “my work is about being seen, but more importantly, it is about freedom of expression, freedom from the labels that are often applied onto us, survival, overcoming fate that is imposed on us individually or collectively, it is about belonging, and finding our way back to our own selves in the midst of nostalgia, displacement, and often also, despair.  In my ceramic work, I focus specially in elevating my voice to give a voice to those who lack one because of societal injustice, and imposed norms."

Aldanondo’s work pushes the limits of what’s expected and judged inviting the viewer to reconsider their engrained views of the world around them and consider new, unexplored possibilities.

She's also intrigued by the possibilities of the unseen, through imagination and the spiritual world.
She believes that while understanding the process or inspiration of any given artist is important to connect to them and their proposed ideas, art cannot be intellectualized and cannot be separate from the visual impact for art's sake of being meant to be interpreted visually.

She won a Merit Scholarship in Abstract Painting offered by The Art Students League and was the winner of the Leonard Rosenfeld Award. She was selected by curators of The Museum of Modern Art in NYC (MoMA) and PS1MoMA Mitra Abbaspour PhD., and James Lee for said scholarship. CLICK HERE to view selection announced on Linea Magazine.

Upon acceptance into the New York Academy of Art's Masters of Fine Arts, she was awarded the Academy Scholar Award by The New York Academy of Art toward the MFA degree and the Susan Wasserstein Patrons Scholar Award.

In past years she also won a juried competition, juried by the Milken Family Foundation: Milken Family Foundation Juried selection juried by Benedict Leca, PH.D., Executive Director at the Redwood Library & Athenaeum, Norah Diedrich, Executive Director at the Newport Art Museum, Qianni Zhu, Mirlen Family Postbaccalaureate Fellow in Museum Practice, Colby College Museum.
Her art career has been reviewed by Forbes Latin-America in Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador and Uruguay, Artland Magazine in Denmark, and by local NYC based contemporary art magazines such as Hyperallergic and WhiteHot Magazine, and in Europe by Artland Magazine.

Her connection to music has led to collaborations with independent musicians of the Juilliard Music School in New York as well as scholars and composers of Columbia University. Other collaborations exploring sound and visual arts include the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the Noa Fort Quartet in an exploration of improvised reactions to music and the visual art forms; Aldanondo painted to live to the music of the musicians and composers who also improvised their music inspired by Aldanondo’s painting; exploring the human experience related to sound in the present moment as part of an exhibition “Sound & Sight: A Duet” presented by The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and curated by NAscentNY in a private event and exhibition in Brooklyn Heights, NY.
As part of another exhibition, she was invited to paint to tango by AvanTango and Grammy nominee Pablo Aslan at the Lower East Side, New York.
She collaborated with New York City based tango orchestras such as Suarez-Paz Tango during their celebratory events of the centennial honoring renowned tango composer, Astor Piazzolla, and was a contributing artist during their Tango Gala Benefit at the Consulate of Argentina in New York.
Occasionally, she collaborates with Central Park Tango, in Central Park, New York, where for the past few years she has painted, inspired by the music, the dancers, and the location, where she is drawn for the spontaneity, inclusion, and diversity abounds and that is welcomed, something she believes is representative of the culture of tango at its core.
You can find Susana sketching or painting there during the summer months.

She has also painted live at a Flushing Business Gala at the Sheraton Hotel, in New York, donating her work to support the Flushing BID.

RESIDENCIES & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Metropolitan Museum of Art - Artist Residency, New York, New York

School of Visual Arts NYC - Artist Residency - New York, New York

ICELAND - Artist Residency program was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of Iceland. Eyrarbakki, Iceland. Susana was selected to join a group of fellow international artists who came together to explore the sense of time and identity, empathy and compassion. While there, Susana worked closely with the local town, school and with Litla-Hraun the largest prison in Iceland, to help create an art festival bringing together everyone in the community, based on the concepts of empathy and compassion, while learning about social interaction, Icelandic festivities & identity, and the social, justice, and welfare system.  She led a painting workshop for 40-50 inmates. She also led a workshop sharing her experience as an abstract expressionist artist at the local school. She led the art workshop during the art festival at the local prison.

SPECIAL FEATURES 

CBS - The Equalizer, featuring three works, 2022, curated by - Hollywood Art Curator & Art Advisor.

SAMSUNG USA - Finalist, featured on Samsung USA, 2019. 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION 

Academy Scholar Scholarship by The New York Academy of Art toward the MFA degree. 

Susan Wasserstein Patron of the Arts Scholar Award - New York Academy of Art

Merit Scholarship Award Winner in Abstract Painting - The Art Students League of New York

The Leonard Rosenfeld Award - through the generosity of the Leonard Rosenfeld Fund and Leonard Rosenfeld’s wife, through The Art Students League of New York selected by jurors of The Museum of Modern Art in NYC (MoMA)  for said scholarship.  Jurors:  Mitra Abbaspour PhD., MoMA,  James Lee  PS1MoMA for said scholarship.  CLICK HERE to view selection, announced on Linea Magazine.

James Little Student Exhibition - Honorable Mention 

Larry Poons Student Exhibition - Red Dot winner * by professors & peers.

Hamptons Fine Art Fair Chief Curator’s Best In Booth Award 

Hamptons Fine Art Fair Chief Curator’s Picks Award 

Best in Show - London, UK

National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) Abstract Painting Juried Award Winner

Jackson’s Painting Prize (London, UK) Long-listed

Samsung USA - Featured artist 

ArtScope Magazine - Winner. Juried by The Milken Family Foundation, The Newport Contemporary Art Museum and the Colby College Museum. 

Artweek - London, UK Best Art Award Winner. New York