Interlocking
36"x36"
Susan Kay Handau is an abstract artist whose decades-long practice explores the textures of nature and the quiet narratives of aging environments. Working across painting, collage, and mixed media, her work investigates how natural forms evolve, weather, and transform over time.
Handau holds a BA in Art History and began her artistic practice exploring abstraction through watercolor. In the 1990s, she developed a distinctive process of cutting and reconstructing her large abstract watercolor paintings into smaller compositions. These works—stitched together with thread—created layered landscapes that emphasized texture, fragmentation, and the passage of time.
Expanding her exploration of materials, Handau later experimented with assemblage, incorporating wax and fibrous elements to build dimensional works from flat substrates. Today, she works primarily with acrylic, inks, and plaster, creating richly textured abstract interpretations of the natural world.
Handau is a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. In Fiscal Year 2023, she was awarded a project grant supporting her work exploring the cultural experience of aging. Her series My Tribe: In Our Aging World was exhibited at the Washoe County Administrative Complex from September through December 2023.
Her work has been exhibited widely across the United States and Western Europe. Recent exhibitions include the Reno Tahoe International Art Show (2022 and 2023), the two-person exhibition Blending of Two Minds at Nevada Fine Arts Gallery (2022), and the three-artist exhibition Led by Vision at Sierra Arts Foundation’s Riverside Gallery (2021). Her work has also been featured on Reno PBS’s ARTEFFECTS and broadcast nationally on PBS affiliates.
In 2015, Handau was invited as a demonstrating artist at the Beverly Hills Art Show, where she received an Honorable Mention in Painting at the juried event known for recognizing artistic excellence.
Handau is a member of Downtown Modernists, the Latimer Art Club, and Sierra Arts Foundation. She is represented internationally through Artech/Artsy, Singulart, Zatista, and Saatchi Art, where her work has been included in curated collections.
She lives and works in Reno, Nevada.
Please contact us by email or phone to purchase artwork. An invoice will be sent and upon purchase delivery details will be discussed. If the artwork is at a current stage, the artwork may not be available for delivery until the home has been de-staged (or sooner if the artwork can be replaced).
775-771-6211
