Sue Reidy

Sue Reidy is a New Zealand contemporary abstract artist based in Auckland. Her paintings are frequently selected as finalists in major national painting awards. Her work has featured in many group shows and she has had two solo exhibitions. For many years, Sue was a figurative painter, but in 2013, after an intense period of experimentation, her artistic horizons expanded. Her work underwent a dramatic transformation and she gradually moved towards becoming a gestural abstract painter. Her experimenting with the materiality of paint and with using unconventional tools for her expressive mark making is ongoing.

Sue was a well-established graphic designer and illustrator for many years, as well as a part-time design tutor (at Unitec and AUT) before reinventing herself as a full-time writer and a painter. Sue is a graduate of the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design (now Massey University College of Creative Arts). She was a board member of the Artists’ Alliance from September 2012 to April 2014.

Sue is also known as a novelist, short story writer and poet, author of three internationally published novels (one was a finalist in the Montana NZ Book Awards) and also a collection of short stories published by Penguin. She is a former Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow, a former winner of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award and a former runner-up of the Sunday-Star Times Short Story Award.

Sue lives with her partner, a publishing consultant, in Ponsonby, Auckland.