REVIEWS
"A sight to please an old man's eyes." ( Henry Moore, sculptor, 1980)
“These paintings are quite captivating and yet disturbing. What some psychoanalysts have done to Caravaggio might also do to the sexuality in Sue's work though the foreshortening is better than Caravaggio's. I am thrilled and repulsed by these paintings. The over-all dour tonality, Rubenesque physique, french academique persistence for dramatic line and form, makes the canvas an almost unwilling recipient for such larger than life symbols of power and strength. As to the motif, well, a breathless reminder of how deep creative human instincts swim about in deeper pools of spiritual and sexual impulses to give us a chiaroscuro rendition of the light and dark side of humanity that has the rapacious and egotistical appetite for being unnecessarily larger than life. I would not sit and stare at these paintings like a muse, but hide them behind a curtain, only to show them to people I think are in need of an eschatological mirror.” (Society of Art and Artists)
“ Sue Vesely's oil canvasses present only partial figures, allowing the eye to focus on the muscular landscape of a limb or torso, or an avaricious glare (Soup). There seem to be influences by several earlier painters, yet Vesely's ultimate product is idiosyncratic and her own. Some of her work brings to mind Baroque ceiling paintings where perspective is used to give the viewer an impression of looking up into the heavens. The main figure in Soup suggests Bruegel's peasants, yet the skin has the chalkiness and three-dimensionality of Michelangelo's frescoes. The bitter-chocolate shades contrasted with greyish off-whites in Path produce shadows reminiscent of some of de Chirico's work - coincidentally with the same detachedness from reality of the latter (Vesely herself describes her nudes as being "in surreal timeless landscapes." (Jan Reynolds)
“Sue Vesely's lush figures adopt odd postures and are seen from unusual vantage points. They leap from windows, shove against each other, stoop and slouch. Some have sprouted wings.” (Lissa Christopher, Sydney Morning Herald)
"The beautiful and dramatic, dream-like paintings of Susan Vesely are emotionally charged and frequently strange. With cues from such Renaissance Artists as Rosso and Bronzino, Vesely's work is loosely in an Italian Mannerist style. She creates dark icons worthy of El Greco's 'Laocoon' (1610), but with a softness reminiscent of Michaelangelo's faded Sistine Chapel ceiling frescos. Expertly, Vesely dissects and reflects the monumental figures in her paintings, treating them as structures to contain the emotional life existing within the body of each figure. That is not to say there is anything derivative going on here- Vesely absolutely belongs to the now. Her composition and subject matter have a timeless quality & a confidence that warrants the historic references, in our opinion, but the narrative is entirely relevant to the 21st Century. The fact that Vesley's angels and demons are fighting virtually the same battle in the 21st Century as they did in the 16th & 17th Centuries, under the Renaissance & Mannerist Artists is either reassuring or worrying, depending on your perspective." (Ovenden Contemporary)