Born Dublin, Ireland, Susan Buttner currently lives and works in Dublin and Meath, Ireland.
Working across sculpture, installation, film and performance, Buttner's practice takes the body as the site where psychological, social and historical experience is carried and made visible. The body is where these tensions are first experienced; sculpture is where they become material. Through research and collaboration, she creates sculptural works that give material form to the relationships between the body, architecture and the social, historical and institutional forces embodied within the built environment. Her work responds to place, lived experience and the histories embedded within architectural spaces, creating forms that invite reflection on memory, belonging and human relations.
In 2021 Buttner presented the solo exhibition Orphaned From Belonging at the Luan Gallery Athlone, a multidisciplinary project incorporating sculpture, performance, and film. Her work has been exhibited widely in Ireland and internationally at institutions including the Royal Hibernian Academy, Draíocht Gallery, Highlanes Gallery, Solstice Arts Centre, and The Model, Royal Academy of Arts, among others. 'Buttner trusts her material to have meaning and potential at every level, before and after the studio. This allows the deeper reality of materiality and language to take centre stage. In this, her work finds its destination within each viewer.' Exhibition text by curator Sara Muthi, Draíocht Gallery, 2021.
Her work is included in numerous public and private collections nationally and internationally, including the Arts Council Collection, Visual Artists Ireland, Department of Defence, and The Huntarian Gallery, Glasgow. Buttner received an MFA Fine Art Sculpture (Distinction) from the National College of Art and Design 2018. She has received numerous bursary and residency awards.