In her installation for On the wall, artist Sue Koch reflects on life beneath the surface in the work Kame san no shukufuku, blessing of the turtle that spans over twelve feet. In this expansive mixed media piece, which incorporates acrylic, jute, mono print, and mock silkscreen on linen, Koch depicts the sea with cephalopods, coral, jellyfish, sea anemone, urchin, and turtles through her own lexicon of abstraction.

Her work is influenced by Japanese Rinpa painting particularly, Shibata Zeshin’s Autumn Grasses in Moonlight. “The Rinpa aesthetic embraces bold, exaggerated, or purely graphic renderings of natural motifs... Underlying Rinpa design sensibilities is a tendency toward simplification and abbreviation, often achieved through a process of formal exaggeration.” (John Carpenter, Designing nature, the rinpa aesthetic in japanese art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.) Koch began working on Kame San no Shukufuku, Blessing of the Turtle in 2019 and resumed working on the piece in 2024, stating, “I didn’t feel it was finished, and perhaps, it’s still in progress, but here is where I am now.”

Artist and graphic designer, Sue Koch was raised in Connecticut where her father was a topographer, which greatly inspired her career. Koch spent over twenty-five years as the Graphic Design Manager at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). She studied Fine Art at Skidmore College, and earned an M.A. from Columbia University, Teachers College. Her thesis, Design and Play, a Series of Projects provided the impetus for current work. Since leaving the MET in 2014, Koch has been practicing as an independent design consultant providing creative direction, strategy, graphic design, and project management, as well as being a dedicated visual artist.