NEW YORK, NY.- Jack Shainman Gallery is presenting Night House, an exhibition of new work by Becky Suss that continues her exploration of interiority, domesticity and memory. Through paintings of imagined spaces and intimate vignettes, the exhibition marks a departure for Suss in her use of the darkness and quietude of the night as a lens through which to consider the emotional and psychological resonance of space. Suffused with the kind of specificity of detail that comes from the act of remembrance, Suss’ paintings reclaim the night not only as a time of reflection, but as one where perception deepens and self-knowledge can be pursued.
Throughout her career, Suss has examined the personal, literary and historical significance of domestic interiors—from her grandparents’ home to the imagined rooms of works of fiction—layering these with a wide range of cultural, historical and autobiographical references. Consistently focusing on spaces traditionally occupied by women, she affirms the home as a foundational site where emotional lives form, memory is cultivated and values are transmitted across generations. Though devoid of figures, Suss’ paintings overflow with details and objects that imply the presence of those unseen. Her formal distortions of seemingly realistic scenes, including the flattening of architecture, exaggerated proportions and warped perspectives, all emphasize the fluid relationship between fact and fiction that coalesces in a remembered image. Rather than resist its instability, Suss embraces the malleability and unpredictability of memory.
In Night House, Suss’ palette—typically defined by bright and saturated colors—is characterized by a myriad of blacks, greys and deep blues, each modulated by the delicate quality of light. Night Garden establishes the scene with a home’s exterior lit by moonlight cast directly above beyond the plane of the canvas, and the paintings that follow invite us to eavesdrop on all that lies within. Despite the descriptive richness of these works, whether anchored by busily-patterned wallpaper or shelves overflowing with books and trinkets, each painting is defined by stillness and absence alike. While Suss’ previous works similarly omitted figures, their pervasive illumination obscured the distinction between time of day and the associations that typically follow. Night House sees Suss exploring what is typically a moment of transition, a stretch of time usually given over to rest and stasis, and instead using it as a framework for considering all that is typically underexamined or overlooked. Muted colors and softened forms invite examination and patient attention, while the nuanced layering of dark pigments allows each composition to shift as the eye acclimates, revealing new depths over time.
Though interiority, whether spatial or psychological, remains central to Suss’ practice, the paintings in Night House also engage with the natural world. Windows recur throughout the exhibition, admitting both light and details from a landscape alternately flowering and frozen, blossoming and bare. Suss’ rendering of trees, foliage, snow and ice are echoed by the patterned wallpaper that defines so many rooms and hallways, subtly linking the cultivated interiors with the living world outside. Similarly, the objects and artifacts that inhabit Suss’ spaces also invoke a world beyond their immediate settings. Paintings, statues, ceramics and tchotchkes alike not only converse with history and culture but also reflect on what is deemed valuable and worth preserving. In their imaginary, at times even impossible, construction, the works in Night House navigate the desire for those who are absent alongside the necessity of solitude.
Suss was born in 1980 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she is currently based. She received an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, a BA from Williams College and in 2013 attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Becky Suss: The Dutch House debuted at the Institute of Contemporary Art Chattanooga, University of Tennessee in 2024, and traveled to The Baker Museum, Naples, FL and the Cheekwood Estate and Gardens, Nashville, TN in 2025. She has had additional solo exhibitions at The Contemporary Dayton and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and her work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA. Additionally, Suss was awarded the prestigious Pew fellowship by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in Philadelphia, PA.
