Susan Mohl Powers

Susan Mohl Powers (1944 – 2023), born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was a contemporary artist who sculpted in polygon and planar metal as well as sewn fabric, blending art and science to design sculptures and fabric-on-canvas paintings. The owner of Sailshade Studios in Fall River, Massachusetts, she also designed, trademarked and fabricated an energy-efficient window shade.

Biography Susan Mohl Powers, daughter of Judson Jasper Mohl and Florence (née Kling) Mohl, was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, of Swedish ancestry. Her family lived in Kansas and also in New England, where she completed high school. She married Alan W. Powers in 1966. They lived in Westport, Massachusetts.

Her interests in science and mathematics shaped her approaches to art. As a child she was fascinated by fossils; as an undergraduate, she conducted public open houses at Mount Holyoke College observatory.

Education

Susan Mohl Powers with two of many large pieces exhibited at Squibb International Headquarters, Princeton, NJ, 1979, reviewed in the Times, "Blending Science and Art." Susan Mohl Powers in Sailshadestudios, Fall River, MA, with pieces from her Nemasket show (Fairhaven) in 1988. It has since exhibited at Heritage Park, Fall River.

Powers earned a baccalaureate in 1966 from Mount Holyoke College, having studied studio art, physics, and astronomy. She began her Master of Fine Arts in sculpture at the University of Minnesota, and completed a Master of Fine Arts in visual design in Massachusetts.

Sailshade Studios Powers designed and began fabricating an energy-efficient "insulating decorator roman shade with a self-creating valance" By 1987, with diminishing sales, Powers took a job at a fabric mill and joined the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which she later saluted with a large installation, "Under the Microscope of Spirit–A Tribute To The I.L.G.W.U.", at Nemasket Gallery in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. She also conducted do-it-yourself workshops locally in Massachusetts on making insulated shades that cut energy costs.

Collaborations As a subcontractor for Paul Amaral, Powers fabricated the tuft for Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's Venice Biennale piece, "Lion's Tale", a gift Oldenburg and van Bruggen installed originally May–October, 1999, in Piazza San Marco outside Museo Correr, Venice, Italy (now at Musei Civici Veneziani in Venice).

Powers directly collaborated with Paul Amaral in 2014 to fabricate the perforated stainless steel sculpture, "Dancing Galaxies".

Powers collaborated on three public sculpture installations with architect Kathryn Duff of the Studio to Sustain, Inc., of New Bedford, Massachusetts: at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island; Prima Care in Fall River, Massachusetts; and The Incognito restaurant in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Solo exhibitions 1979 – "Polygons and Planar Nets," Squibb Gallery, Princeton, New Jersey 1988 – "Under the Microscope of Spirit–A Tribute To The I.L.G.W.U.", Nemasket Gallery, Fairhaven, Massachusetts; with immediate follow-up exhibition at Heritage State Park, Fall River, Massachusetts 1994 – Digital Corporation, Worcester, Massachusetts 1994 – Piano Mill Gallery, Needham, Massachusetts 1995 – Sterling Millworks Gallery, Sterling, Massachusetts 2002 – "Solo Exhibition 2002", Galleria Eclettica, Milano, Italia 2004 – New Bedford Art Museum, Lower Vault and Upper Vault Gallery

Selected group exhibitions 1971 – Kramer Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota 1975 – Image Gallery, Lenox, Massachusetts 1994 – Donovan Gallery, Tiverton, Rhode Island 1998 – Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, Rhode Island 2003 – "Sun Spots 2003" and "Juno's Corset 2003", Grimshaw Gudewicz Art Gallery, Fall River, Massachusetts 2005 – Annotazioni d'Arte, Milano, Italia

Public installations 1991−1997– Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 1984 – Banners for Boston Ballet's world premiere performance of Choo San Goh's Romeo and Juliet, Wang Center, Boston, Massachusetts 1994−2008 – Fall River Government Center, Fall River, Massachusetts 2003 – "Seahorses 2003", Prima Care Lobby, Fall River, Massachusetts 2004−2008 – Incognito restaurant, New Bedford, Massachusetts 2004−present – "Fifteen Walls of Bas Reliefs", Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island 2009 – Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. 2010−2012 – Fall River Planning Board, Fall River, Massachusetts

Selected sculptures by Susan Mohl Powers