Susan Kleckner

Susan Kleckner was a feminist filmmaker, photographer, performance artist, and writer active from the late 1960s until 2010 and based in New York City.

Early life Kleckner was born in Great Neck, Long Island, New York on July 5, 1941, as one of four children of Anita and Charles Kleckner. From 1968-1970, she worked on a series of silkscreens, Fracture, and produced many images of subways.

In 1969, she sought funding for Women Artists in Revolution (WAR) from the New York State Council on the Arts, working with WAR and Feminists in the Arts and eventually receiving $5,000 from the council. Included in this film was footage of the Christopher Street Gay Liberation March, an early event in the LGBT rights movement of which very little known footage exists.

In 1971 she spent time at Robert Wilson’s Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds, where she befriended Pierre Ruiz, who later appeared in Pierre Film.

Her next documentary, in 1972, was Another Look at the Miami Convention: A Work In Progress, centered on the presidential candidacy of Shirley Chisholm, the first woman and African American to seek a presidential nomination. and taught private studio classes. She led workshops at the Pratt Institute, New York University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The space had a loft bed, portable toilet, television monitor, video tape player, telephone, hot plate, and a curtain for occasional privacy. Petitions to promote peace and other activities were organised outside the glass. The project was highly acclaimed and won the Susan B. Anthony Award from the National Organization for Women' New York chapter in 1988, which honored grass-roots activists.

Berlin Wall performance and mental health A month after Windowpeace closed, in February 1987, Kleckner performed a non-violent art action by climbing the Berlin Wall with a ladder near Checkpoint Charlie. The East German authorities arrested and interrogated her for 20 hours before releasing her with the film she had recorded.

In February 1988, Kleckner suffered from a mental health breakdown due to her bipolar disorder, and spent time in a locked mental health ward. During this time, she photographed her experiences, and was awarded for these photographs in 1997 by the New York Foundation for the Arts Catalogue Project Grant for women photographers over 40 years old.

Later life and work

In 1992, Kleckner received her bachelor of arts from SUNY Empire State College, New York, hosted a solo exhibition at Empire Gallery, and enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Jersey where she studied and worked with Martha Rosler.

Kleckner's work through the 1990s included photographs and video of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor, an incomplete video project titled Liz and Eileen Birthing Mave, a three-day performance/installation/event In the Shelter of Each Other at the Omega Institute, and Visual Diary. In 1885 she produced a large body of work for RetroSPECTive, her solo exhibition at the Walter K. Gordon Theater, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey.

In 1997, she received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University.

In 1999, she attended The New Seminary for Interfaith Studies, interested in spirituality. In 2002, she was ordained as Minister of Divinity at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and chose the title of Rainbow Reverend.

From 1996 to 2010, Kleckner worked with mental health therapist Ona Lindquist and produced many artworks about their therapeutic relationship, including photographs and computer drawings. During this time she performed Home Office in the window at the New Museum, New York, as part of the series of performances Home Fronts: Between the Public and the Private with Martha Rosler, Susan Kleckner, and Nancy Buchanan, held in conjunction with the exhibition Martha Rosler: Positions in the Life World. She re-performed Home Office as part of the Marxism 2000 conference at UMass Amherst in the same year.

Cancer diagnosis and death Kleckner was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2004, and began to volunteer with SHARE Cancer Support as a result. For the last two years of her life, she used portable oxygen. She continued to teach, make drawings, and take photographs. She acted as an advisor at the One Spirit Interfaith Learning Alliance and worked with the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. She died from the cancer on July 7, 2010.

Her work was donated to the W. E. B. Du Bois Library in January 2012. In 2014, her work formed the visual core of the exhibition Documents from Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, which paid tribute to the women who camped at Greenham Common.

Raw Material: The Art and Life of Susan Kleckner

From January 23 to April 5, 2026 the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College displayed Raw Material: The Art and Life of Susan Kleckner, the first comprehensive survey of the artists' work. Curated by William Kaizen, the exhibition spanned over forty years of creative experimentation and political engagement, offering a long-overdue exploration of Kleckner’s multifaceted career and illuminated her enduring influence on feminist, queer, and activist art practices in the U.S. and beyond. The exhibition comprised approximately 100 works across photography, film, video, installation, and performance.

Funded through a grant from The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, the exhibition was accompanied by screenings of Kleckner's films Three Lives, Birth Film, Another Look at the Miami Convention, and Desert Piece (Outtakes) in collaboration with Lightbox Film Center. The exhibition was also accompanied by a three-day durational performance program by artist Kiran Jandu entitled Window Peace: An Anarchive that took place March 18-20, 2026 at Public Trust. Jandu's Window Peace: An Anarchive performance revisited and extended Susan Kleckner’s original Window Peace (1986-87). The performance by Jandu honored Linda Montano’s 1987 performance as part of the original Window Peace, through a blindfolded, seven-hour daily practice of chakra-based meditation. Jandu was joined throughout the days by visiting Philadelphia artists including Eva Wu and Angel Shanel Edwards. On Friday March 20, 2026, Linda Montano performed Blindfold Window Peace again for seven hours in the window alongside Jandu. This performance was followed by a community circle event featuring Kiran Jandu, Linda Montano, Sharon Hayes, and Susan Jahoda.

The accompanying Raw Material: The Art and Life of Susan Kleckner publication was authored by William Kaizen with contributions from Linda Cummings, Susan Jahoda, and Siona Wilson. The publication was released in March 2026.

Raw Material: The Art and Life of Susan Kleckner will be on view Feb 9 to May 12, 2027 at The University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.