BIOGRAPHY
Susan Aurinko, a photographer, writer, and curator, has shown her work in France, Italy, and India, as well as in the US. Her exhibition about India, entitled STILL POINT INDIA, opened at Kriti Gallery in Varanasi, in February 2013 and is now available as a book. Aurinko’s work appears on several book covers, including The Stranger Among Us, Ariel, Scar Tissue, Slut Lullabies, and Bound and Broken and on several album covers for The Pink Crows, Les Nuits Americaine and Frank Rapp in France, Four of her photographs are included in the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s permanent collection. In addition, her work is in the permanent collections of Loyola University Museum of Art and The Union League Club of Chicago, and her work hangs in private collections in France, Italy, India, the UK, Monaco, and across the US. In May of 2017, Aurinko’s SEARCHING FOR JEHANNE – THE JOAN OF ARC PROJECT was a solo exhibition at LUMA (Loyola University Museum of Art) on Michigan Avenue, for four months, and at St Mary of the Lake University, Mundelein for seven months, and in 2024, the work was shown at Art Center Highland Park, IL. SEARCHING FOR JEHANNE – THE JOAN OF ARC PROJECT is also available as a book.
As a curator, Aurinko has created over 240 exhibitions, both at FLATFILEgalleries, the gallery she founded and directed for 9 years, and in a variety of other galleries and venues including IIT, and curated exhibitions for both the Japanese and Danish governments. From 2007 through 2020, Aurinko provided the art for the Prudential Building lobbies. Aurinko studied photography, film, and design in various schools, including Layton School of Art and Design, The University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Columbia College Chicago, where she has guest taught and critiqued in the photography department and the Portfolio Center. She has led workshops for photographers and artists in the US, Canada, and India. Aurinko was Chair of the Exhibition Committee at the Union League Club of Chicago for 12 years, where she curated the ULCC’s monthly rotating exhibitions. She is on Board of Directors of FreshLens Chicago and the Board or Directors of The American Friends of the Wien Museum in VIenna. Aurinko previously chaired the Advisory Board for Chicago Photography Center, for whom she also curated the gallery’s 11 annual exhibitions from fall 2010 until the spring of 2013. She is a longtime member of the Advisory Committee of the International Photography Awards (Lucie Awards) and has been an IPA and Px3 Juror for many years. Aurinko curated Gallery One at Primitive in Chicago in 2022-2023, and with Art Consultant Susan Blackman, creates exhibitions under the name Curators Gone Rogue. Aurinko also writes photography reviews and features for Newcity Magazine in Chicago.