Inside the Vian Studio
Melannie Chard
Apr 30, 2026
STUDIO EVENT + ARTIST TALK
Moderated by Sue Carman-Vian
Sunday, May 3rd | 2 - 5 PM
Artist Talk: 3 - 4 PM
418 East 3rd St. Royal Oak, MI
SUE CARMAN-VIAN | Dear Sweetheart (WWII Agnes Letters), 2016 | Graphite on paper, 38 × 53 inches
There's something uniquely personal about our upcoming talk and studio event with Rick Vian led by Sue Carman-Vian. Sue will be moderating the conversation not only as a fellow artist, but as his wife and longtime counterpart in a shared creative life. The best part? The conversation will come from within their home and studio.
(Left) Hat Trick, 2016 | (Right) My Real Film, 2016
SUE CARMAN-VIAN | Graphite on paper, 30 × 25 inches
In preparation, I thought it might help to spend a moment with Sue's work. Her studio will be open on Sunday and on view to provide an entry point into how she sees and constructs meaning through her layered, narrative storytelling.
Still from Sue's performance It Takes One to Be One
Sue's work begins with accumulation. Images, memories and fragments of experience are gathered over time and held until they find one another. In her drawings and paintings, these elements come together in ways that feel intuitive and specific. A dictionary becomes a landscape. A cake stand becomes architecture. A handwritten note or embroidered cloth carries the same weight as a figure. These objects, once functional, once part of daily life are repositioned as the carriers of meaning and memory. Sue injects a quiet surrealism, where both scale and context shift, allowing the emotional life of these objects and images to surface.
SUE CARMAN-VIAN | Women at Their Heights, 2016 | Graphite on paper, 38 × 53 inches
Within her Dying Arts series, this becomes very apparent. The work draws attention to forms of communication and care that are slowly disappearing…handwritten letters, inherited objects and social gestures that require time and presence. In Sue's hands, they take on a near-sacred quality, not just of nostalgia, but simply out of recognition. They indicate a shift in how we relate to one another, and what we choose to preserve. There is a feminist undercurrent here as well. Sue's work has a strong focus on domestic labor, generational knowledge and the ways in which we carry meaning.
SUE CARMAN-VIAN | Dying Things Adrift, The Dying Arts series, 2024 | Graphite on paper, 24 × 36 inches
Experiencing Sue's work in her studio where it is made, shifts the context entirely. As she leads the talk with Rick, her role is not only as a moderator, but as an artist whose practice runs alongside his in a distinctly different register. Rick's work moves through abstraction, building meaning through surface, structure, and the physical language of paint. Sue's, by contrast, is anchored in image and object, using fragments of narrative and the familiarity of things to build meaning. Where his work operates through atmosphere and material presence, hers moves through association and symbolism. Together, they offer two approaches to experience, one distilled and one descriptive but both shaped over time.
I hope you're able to join us for this one!
(Left) Layed to Rest, 2022 | (Right) Florentine Frosting, 2023
SUE CARMAN-VIAN | Oil on canvas, 8 × 8 inches
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As always, thanks for reading!
See You Soon!