Perpetual Expanse, by Susan Ferrari Rowley

August 29 to October 17, 2026

Susan Ferarri Rowley is a contemporary sculptor based out of Scottsville, NY. With a passion as both an artist and educator, she forged a path to pursue a career in both.

She attended Rochester Institute of Technology to earn her Master of Fine Arts and Master of Science for Teachers in the Visual Arts.

Ferrari Rowley began her career as a sculptor, finding early that fabric was her medium of choice. She quickly discovered that recognition in that medium was restricted to the term craftsman, and she questioned being shut out by the sculptural realm. She played a major role in the acceptance of fabric as a sculptural medium by consistently putting her work into competitions that caused critics and judges to question existing standards for what is a proper medium for sculpture.

She creates work that is influenced by the architecture of the space where it will be displayed. “Whether commissioned work or exhibition work, the sculptures are extremely dramatic in space when they address the existing architecture,” Ferrari Rowley said in a 2026 interview with Canvas Rebel. “I create a new body of work for each space offered to me depending on the circumstances. What I offer are one-of a-kind creative solutions.”

Artist's Statement

My process and medium is welded aluminum and hand sewn fabrics combined in post-minimal sculptures that deal with human emotion. Line, space, and form interact equally in these opposites of hard and soft materials. The interior and exterior of each form, and the negative space in and around each sculpture are equally critical. White and translucent, they react to changing light with interior and cast shadows that are part of their visual complexity.

The appearance of improbability and the defiance of gravitational pull, challenges the viewer, as forms lean, suspend, and exist on minimal support at will. It is form as meaning.

I experiment with spaces I am given, developing statements with line, space, and dimensionality, creating transformative dimensional experiences relative to the ceiling, walls, and floor.