Susie Olczak

Biography

Olczak is co-founder of Conscious Isolation and Hang_On Gallery. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, member of the Association of Women in the Arts, Royal Society of Sculptors, The Women in Higher Education Network, and Space, Place, Practice.

Research projects include cross disciplinary work with the University of Gloucestershire Countryside Community Research Institute, field work and research in Panama and Chile with La Wayaka Current and with Hestercombe Gallery. Olczak undertakes practice-based research with outputs in writing, installation, collage and sculpture is interested in the idea of adaptation. A central theme is in how natural phenomena such as water and light affect our experience of the world around us. Underpinning all research projects are the themes of time, climate change, and urban development in the context of new technologies and digital culture.

Her work has been shown internationally in Chile, Berlin, Japan and the United States. She has exhibited around the United Kingdom and has also been commissioned to produce public artworks by BBC Scotland, Charles Saatchi at the Big Chill Festival, The Cambridge Institute of Astronomy and The National Trust. She has participated in collaborative research with the Royal College of Art (RCA) and the Tomas Saraceno studio at the Aerocene exhibition in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. She also received the Villiers David Travel Grant for a research trip to Iceland while at the RCA.

Qualifications

Olczak graduated with a BA Honours in Fine Art, Sculpture and Environmental Art from the Glasgow School of Art in 2010 and with an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2019. She is a current part-time PhD candidate at University of Gloucestershire.