Installation view, SΘK Gallery, 2023

A special installation of Susan Moldenhauer’s series, Place | Mind | Spirit can be seen by appointment only at SΘK Gallery in Laramie, WY.

Place | Mind | Spirit Re-View is a body of work created between 2002 and 2008. She writes: Place | Mind | Spirit was a celebration for me, being in Wyoming, having been appointed the director of the Univerity of Wyoming Art Museum, and feeling grounded. I hadn’t made any pictures for almost two years and decided it was critical that I get photography back in my life. It was the beginning of my second decade here, and from the beginning, I had been fascinated by the ever-changing sky, the ever-present wind, the light on the landscape.”

The landscape between Laramie and Cheyenne became a focal point for her work as she was attracted to the open meadows and the scale changes that space and distance offer. The quality of air at 8000 ft was unusual for her, having been born in Chicago and raised in its suburbs where grayness was pervasive.

Using her own presence on the land, she danced with fabric before her camera in an effort to make wind a partner. The format is panoramic in the work on view; there is a companion series that is square. Advancements in desktop printing made it possible for her to print her own images in black and white after years of working with a lab to make her prints.

The opportunity for Moldenhauer to re-visit this work after so many years has led to re-titling the previous generic references to these images.

SΘK Gallery is an event space for the arts and is available for house concerts, pop up exhibitions, and readings. Contact her at moldenhauerphotostudio@gmail.com for more information or to schedule a time for viewing the exhibition.  SΘK Gallery is located at 1004 S 2nd St in Laramie. More information may be found at SΘK Gallery on FaceBook.

Susan, Nestled Among Wyoming, University of Wyoming Art Museum, 2023 photo credit: Allison Pluda John

Susan Moldenhauer is one of seven Wyoming artists whose work is on view in the biennial Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship Exhibition. Curated by Tasha Kubesh, independent curator of Fargo, North Dakota, the other artists are Talissa Abeyta, Marcus Dewey, Colleen Friday, DaleRae Green, Al Hubbard, and Eileen Nistler. The exhibition is called Nestled Among Wyoming: The Wyoming Arts Council Biennial Fellowship Exhibition. A catalog accompanies the exhibition.

Kubesh selected 4 works each from two bodies of work by Moldenhauer:  Place | Mine | Spirit (2002 – 2008) and Every thing is not all right (2017 – 2021). She says of her work: My photographic works are intrinsically interwoven with my life, the emotional potential of the black and white print, and ideas about time,, place, movement, and moment. In the early 2000s, it was an exploration of light and place, with the wind as my partner as I captured personal performances in the Wyoming landscape. Twenty years later, darkness overwhelms as I use the emotive power of clouds to reflect on my time of life, American history in the making, and the great issues of climate change, war, the pandemic, and the state of the United States.

The Univerity of Wyoming Art Museum is located at 2111 Willett Drive on the university campus in Laramie, Wyoming. The exhibition continues through December 23, 2023.

Since then, Mystery Print Gallery, 2023

Since then, an exhibition of current work by Susan Moldenhauer opened at Mystery Print Gallery in Pinedale, WY on September 7, 2023. The exhibition continues through October 21, 2023.

Since then is a selection of 14 works from a body of work that Moldenhauer began on the eve of the 2017 Presidential Inauguration. Her ongoing exploration involves making cloud images in new world contexts using found text from the news, personal experience, and celestial events as titles. Its underpinnings have been from a time and place perspective on this time in her life (having retired from 33 years as an arts administration in 2017), American history in the making, and global concerns such as climate change, war, and the pandemic. The juxtaposition of image and title, both captured within a 24-hour timeframe using the immediacy of the iPhone, is one of finding resonance between them through the emotive power of clouds.

Mystery Print Gallery is located at 221 S Sublette Ave in Pinedale, WY.

Susan, Ucross 2023 photo credit: Mary Jane Edwards

Guest curated by Ucross Fellow Keith Davis for the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Ucross Foundation, Susan Moldenhauer joins 15 Ucross fellows in this extraordinary exhibition that explores the artistic journey of these photographers.  Each selected two works for inclusion: the first representing an earlier style, subject, or approach to their work and the second exemplifying current concerns. Each photographer’s statement provides an overarching view of their work over time.

Davis is a photographic historian, author, curator, and image maker in Sheridan, Wyoming. In addition to Moldenhauer,  The Shape of Time: 16 Photographers and Their Creative Paths includes Barbara Bosworth of Stow, Massachusetts; Laura Cobb of Lincoln, Nebraska; Christina Fernandez of Norwalk, California; Anthony Hernandez of Fairfield, Idaho; Nicole Jean Hill of Eureka, California; Michael Kolster of Brunswick, Maine; Jin Lee of Chicago, Illinois; Serge J-F. Levy of Tucson, Arizona; Janet L. Pritchard of Mansfield Center, Connecticut; Victoria Sambunaris of New York, New York; Carla Shapiro of Kingston, New York; Joni Sterbach of Brooklyn, New York; Elizabeth Stone of Bonner, Montana; Youngsuk Suh of Berkeley, California, and Incheon, South Korea; and William S. Sutton of Boulder, Colorado.

The exhibition remains on view through January 26, 2024. The Ucross Gallery is on the grounds of the Ucross Foundation and Residency Program, Ucross, WY.

Susan Moldenhauer recently joined the Denver-based photo collective, Photo Pensato.

Pensato is an Italian term for a musical note so exquisite that it can neither be played nor heard. The collective of 10 photographers seeks to create images that capture that ‘exquisite note,’ elusive spirit, and timeless power of photography.  Through a shared aesthetic and an appreciation of each other’s photographic efforts to discover, learn, and grow, Photo Pensato endeavors to where their work with the larger world around us.

The photographs of Photo Pensato are Thomas Carr, Raj Manickam, Shephen Podrasky, Ward Russell, Ron Johnson, Susan Moldenhauer John Shelton, Linda Little, James Montague, and Michael Trupiano. Their next scheduled exhibition is in early 2024 at the Sangre de Cristo Art Center in Pueblo, CO.