Artist Statement

Susan Lincoln employs shimmering light-emitting materials and a strikingly-restrained colour palette to create immersive art experiences. In some works lead crystals, reflective beads and strings of light hang in generous loops like chandeliers. In others, white-on-white works-on-paper and found objects feature on gallery walls. Further works present sculptural structures composed with a bower-bird-like dedication to transparent materials. An ethereal levity unites them all.

Susan Lincoln is an award-winning artist and designer. For over two decades, she has created dazzling, bespoke sculptural objects and explored the endlessly evocative and fascinating relationships between light, space, memory and architecture through her uniquely monochromatic practice.

Following 10 years in drafting, in the architectural, mining and engineering industries, Lincoln completed a Bachelor of Visual Art (Interior Design) at Queensland College of Art (QCA) (1996). Demonstrating excellence from the very beginnings of her creative career, Lincoln received first prize in the Designex Australasian Interior Design Student Award the same year as graduating for her work Spatial Adaptability: an adaptable design for apartment living with movable walls.

A decade later, Lincoln returned to QCA to complete her Master of Visual Art (by research) (2011). As part of her studies, she penned her exegesis: “Maintaining Socio-Cultural Narratives through Form and Light” and developed her the majorartwork We Will See You All Soon (2011). Lincoln’s studies shine through her art’s relationships to a wide range of leading contemporary artists and her rigorous understanding of how to create moods and elicit audience feelings with her work.

Lincoln’s art is exhibited in a wide range of galleries—commercial, regional and experimental—across Australia. Recent highlights include her entry SCAP in the highly-competitive Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Gallery (2023); solo exhibitions at the warmly-loved Side Gallery (2020, 2018, 2016); and Dystopia / Utopia, celebrating 50 years of artisan: Queensland’s home of art and design. For the latter, Lincoln created the commissioned work The Swing (Rock, Water, Light). This work is notable for two significant departures from Lincoln’s established practice. In this work, Lincoln responds to someone else’s story and injects vibrant, glittering colour into her typically achromatic aesthetic. Lincoln has also shown at the Affordable Art Fair with Studio Gallery Group, BLINDSIDE ARI, Langford 120, Jan Manton Gallery, the State Library of Queensland and NERAM, among many others.

Beyond galleries, Lincoln’s art may be seen in private and public spaces. Min Min Lights (2008) at Brisbane’s International Terminal is a favourite commission. Using her signature crystals, Lincoln translates the mysterious folk law and Indigenous story of unexplained, fast-moving lights into a sparkling sculpture for international travellers. Nicole Kidman, Gadens Lawyers, Queensland Theatre, and Redland Shire Council also feature among Lincoln’s collectors and commissioners.

Lincoln’s practice is sustained by an impressive list of artworld accolades from grants to prizes, mentorships and residences. These include the highly-competitive Pat Corrigan Artist Grant awarded by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) (2002) and the People's Choice Award at the Churchie Emerging Art Exhibition in Brisbane the same year. More recently, Lincoln received competitive funds from the Australia Council (now Creative Australia) to create TRR (Light Vehicle), an otherworldly, immersive yet portable art environment. TRR was a finalist in the acclaimed 2014 McClelland Sculpture and Survey Award and led to further successful funding from Arts Queensland in 2018 to extend the work’s meditative possibilities into You Are Here 2: The incredible lightness of being.

Following a childhood and early lifetime living across regional Queensland, Lincoln now lives and works in Meanjin (Brisbane) with her husband Brett, daughter Maggie, and their dog Ziggy.

She is represented across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne by Studio Gallery Group.