EXHIBITIONS/INSTALLATIONS
Prior to 1969 - paintings & drawings shown at student shows, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1969 - “Compulsory Confinement”, Final Project, George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, site-
specific installation of barbed-wire obstruction of doorway of studio
1971 - painting, Virginia Museum Biennale, Richmond, Virginia Certificate of Distinction, awarded by
Thomas Hess, Curator of Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1971 - paintings & watercolors, solo exhibition, Virginia Museum
1972 - painting, Independent Study Program Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1975 - “Look Out” photographs, Artists Space, group show
2007 - "Watch Out" photographs, Susan Ensley & Gordon Matta-Clark, The David Zwirner Gallery, Matta-
Clark & Rirkrit Tirvanijia show
2014 - “The Artist Is Not Present”, ABC No Rio, The Real Estate Show extended (RESx), recreation of the
laughing piece installed outside at the opening, installed in the gallery with headphones
PERFORMANCES
1970 - Homecoming Queen Project, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. Susan Ensley
was elected second-runner-up Homecoming Queen, escort Dennis Dyke
1975 - “Man Overboard”, B&W slides, 8mm & 16mm B&W film, audio, Media Equipment Resources Center,
NY, NY . A tour of the underworld based on Dante's Inferno. Performer: Susan Ensley
1975 - “Look Out” (The Way Things Are & The Way Things Are Supposed to Be), actors in costumes
perform staged vignettes in windows with dressed sets in two buildings opposite The Kitchen, New
York.
Only one side can be seen at a time:
From the Broome Street side in The Kitchen only the
wealthy can be seen, from the Wooster Street side only the lower classes can be seen
Photos:
Lizbeth Marano, Gordon Matta-Clark, Tim Burns, Kathy Landesman. Performers: Margie Crimmons,
Jeremy Lipp, Julian Schnabel, Martha Wilson, Joel Fisher, Larry Williams, Shepp Abbott, Lisa Abbott,
Pamela Smith
1976 - Laughing Piece, large-scale audio work, installed anonymously at the René Block Gallery, Gordon
Matta-Clark’s loft, and by arrangement of the John Gibson Gallery, NY, NY, for projection onto West
Broadway from Houston Street to Grand Street & several blocks east & west (20 blocks +/-). An
ironic consideration of SoHo on the first beautiful Saturday afternoon. Photos: Marc Petitjean
1976 - “Why Don’t You Come Up and See Me Sometime”, site-specific performance in tenement apartment
at 250 Mulberry Street, NY, NY. Performer: Susan Ensley, with Julia Heyward & Betsey Sussler.
Photos: Lizbeth Marano. Featured in Dennis Mohr’s film “Ravenites” (2017) based on Alec
Wilkinson’s article "Urban Anthropology" in Double Take magazine and on NPR “This American Life”
("The Mob", episode #76, Sept. 19, 1997; transcript This American Life.org.Act Three. Neighbors to
The Mob)
1976 - Haircut Project, changing styles with changing politics, cutting long hair shorter at Stefan Eins 3
Mercer Street Store, NY, NY
1977 - “Home Run – Run Home” The Museum of Modern Art, New York
2014 - “Laughing Piece Reprise” : The Artist is Not Present”, ABC No Rio, “The Real Estate Show
Extended”
PERFORMED FOR/PHOTOGRAPHED BY
1972 - Jannis Kounellis, “Regazza”, installation with woman, blanket, propane torch & bunson burner at the
Sonnabend Gallery, NY
1972-73 - Dan Graham in “Body Press” and “Helix/Spiral”, 16mm films made by performers with 8mm and
16mm film cameras, at Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, NY Cultural Center, etc., and published by
MIT Press
1972 - Robert Krushner, “Masque of the Monuments”, performers as rocks, Holly Solomon’s 98 Greene
Street Loft gallery, NY, NY
1975 - Performer for Julia Heyward, “ma I am huh”, at the artist’s Duane Street loft
1976 - “Prophecy” and “Distress Call”, two plays by Peter Handke, co-director and actress, with Lindsee
Smith, Margaret Dewys and Mindy Stevenson, at the 9 Jay Street Garage
1978 - Jim Jarmusch, “Zone”, 16mm B&W film, actress
1979 - portrait by Bobby Miller, photographer, 1979, portrait. Published 2017, "A Downtown State of Mind", 'Punk Girl in Leather', page 77
1979 - Betsy
Sussler, “Tripe”, video
1979 - Nan Goldin, portrait of Susan Ensley & David Byrne
1979 - portrait by Marcus Leatherdale, "New York New Wave" P.S. 1 (1980), curated by Diego Cortez, & the
Paláis des Beaux Arts, Brussels, The Museum of Modern Art, Bologna, Rare Gallery, NYC & included
in The MoMA exhibition “Club 57 - Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983”
(2017-18), etc.
2012 - Billionaires for Barclays, curated by Martha Wilson with Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Barclays,
Brooklyn, NY, performer
FILMS
1973 - “First Film”, 16mm B&W film plus loop and audio
1974 - “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue”, color 8mm film with metronome
1977 - “No Conscience”, 8mm & 16mm color film, with Chris Parker, Patti Astor, Randy Gunn, Jeanette
Gonzales, music by DNA (Arto Lindsay, Ikue Mori, Robin Crutchfield), about a young man (played by
Chris Parker) who watches too much television.
2010 - “A Round”, 10 minute color film loop with music by Glen Branca "The World Upside Down", Centre
D’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona, Spain, “Imperfect As They Are,” screening of films made with toy
movie cameras including Park Chan Wook, Patrice Leconte, Jonas Mekas, Albert Maysles, Miranda
July, Harmony Korine, Christopher Doyle, Agnes B, Kim Gordon
ASSISTANCE/FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
2013 - Franklin Furnace, for the recreation of the “Laughing Piece” & Previously ... The National Endowment
for the Arts Artists Space Materials Grants New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Urban Corps
Millay Colony for the Arts Penland School of Crafts Additional financial/studio assistance received
from: Gene Davis, Tony Smith, Robert Rauschenberg, Henry Geldzahler, Anne Alpert (aka Anne
Matta or Anne Clark)
PRESS/RADIO/ARTICLES & REVIEWS
1971 - Richmond Times, Richmond News Leader
One review said that the early work (the painting in the
group show; at 20 years old) was superior to the later work (the paintings in the solo show; at 21
years old); the other review said that the later work (the paintings in the solo show) was superior to
the early work ( the painting in the group show)
1975 - Art-Rite (Performance Issue), "Look Out" The Kitchen catalog, "Look Out" photos
1975-76 - Alan Sondheim article "Art and Generations" on "Man Overboard"
1980 - Alec Wilkinson article "Urban Anthropology", Double Take Magazine, on the Mafia in Nolita & “Why
Don’t You Come Up and See Me Sometime”
1980 - John Howell, SoHo News, on the history of performance art
1997 - NPR “This American Life”,
episode #76 “The Mob” by Alec Wilkinson, from his article "Urban Anthropology" for Double Take
Magazine
1998 - Artist's Space catalog "5000 Artist's Return to Artists Space: 25 Years"; "Look Out" photographs
2012 - New York Times - Billonaires for Barclays
MISCELLANEOUS/RELATED ART/WORK EXPERIENCES
1972 - cook & waitress at Food Restaurant
Food Film, shot by Gordon Matta-Clark, with Robert Frank,
Suzanne Harris et al.
as shown at White Columns, 1999
1972-73 - Waitress at Max's Kansas City
1973 - Bykert Gallery, receptionist/gallery assistant & installer
Galerie MTL8, Brussels, Belgium
1973-75 - Assisted Gordon Matta-Clark: "Clockshower", “Splitting”, “Bingo”, “Project Lutze”, “Day's End”
1976 - La Cinémathèque Française
1977 - “Send/Receive” production assistant for Keith Sonnier & Liza Bear in collaboration with NASA,
video
satellite project between New York and San Francisco
1983 - stories, “Want & Need”, “Shopping With Mom”, published in Bomb Magazine, illustrated by
Robin
Winters
EDUCATION
Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, La Sorbonne, Hunter College, Penland School of Crafts, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University
LOOK OUT photographs selected by Julian Schnabel for inclusion in the collection of Mickey Ruskin (The
Estate of Mickey Ruskin/ Max’s Kansas City), 1976
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ARTIST’S FILE/DOCUMENTATION OF WORK INCLUDED IN THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ARTIST’S LIBRARY SINCE 1978