Susana Amundaraín was born in Caracas, Venezuela. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree, with emphasis in painting and performance art from the University of Denver in Colorado (1982.) She has also been a visiting scholar in Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, in NYU (1989-1990). Amundaraín has exhibited internationally in twenty-three solo shows, as well as in numerous group exhibits. One of her areas of interest is the pluralism of painting as it relates to performance space, both in theater and in alternative areas. Her pursuit began in 1981, while still a graduate student at DU. This took her into a series of exploratory forms in the realm of transient mixed media and action under the expert guidance of Dr. Mindy Lorenz and Mel Strawn. At that time she becomes a member of “TransArt”, an interdisciplinary and intensely active performance group directed by Bill Gian in Denver, from 1981 to 1983. After six years of developing a presence as a committed painter in Caracas, she returns to Performance Studies in New York University thanks to the invitation and tutelage of Dr. Peggy Phelan. During this period she is strongly influenced by the ideas and concepts presented by Dr. Michael Taussig and Dr. Carl Weber.

In 1992 Dr. Phyllis Tuchman writes a critical essay of her work based on twelve years of development. Here she observes: “Susana Amundaraín’s luminous, layered abstractions are beautiful and profound. With them this Venezuelan artist simultaneously addresses aesthetic as well as philosophical issues (…) Amundaraín has almost always made work that is non-representational. For her this is a commitment, not a fad. Despite the recent art world hum that abstraction was no longer viable, she continued to practice it. And now this allegiance has situated her squarely among a group of dynamic, like-minded painters who are twenty and thirty-something and based in New York, London and other international centers.”  

Her production works include Explosion de una Memoria (1994) a painting-installation at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas based on a play by Heiner Müller, with environmental sound by husband, Efraín Amaya. In 1999, she collaborates with her daughter, Vanessa Briceño (filmmaker), Efraín Amaya (composer) and Carol Ciavonne (co-writer of lyrics) to create Clepsydra, a multimedia operatic performance. This was premiered as part of Pittsburgh’s celebrations of the new millennium. She has also done set designs for plays staged by the “Grupo Theja” in Venezuela, including the world-premiered piece Autorretrato de Artista con Barba y Pumpa by José Ignacio Cabrujas under the direction of José Simón Escalona, and for André Koslowski with the Pennsylvania Dance Theatre.

Ms. Amundaraín is represented in several museums in South America and the USA, as well as in numerous corporative and private collections. She currently teaches at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, where she lives and continues her artistic career with her husband and their 13-year-old son, Amadís.