Lowtide, 2019

Susannah Israel

Susannah Israel is an American contemporary artist and writer living in east Oakland, California. Her sculptures reveal a gritty yet passionate view of humanity, drawn from city life. She was born in New York and raised by a painter and a writer; as a young student she received a scholarship to Pratt Art Institute. Israel attended San Francisco State University earning her B.A in Art and Chemistry, 1987 and M.F.A. in 2000. A teaching artist (2002-2018), she was Professor of Sculpture & Ceramics at Laney College, Oakland and engaged with diverse communities throughout the western states, giving lectures, workshops and masterclasses.

Israel’s expressive work is widely exhibited, appearing in the collections of the American Museum of Ceramics, Archie Bray Foundation, Auckland Memorial Museum, New Zealand, Mint Museum’s American Ceramics Collection, the Yingge Ceramics Museum, parks and libraries, and many other sites around the world.

Low Tide is part of a sequence of sculptures called the Tidal Estuary Series. Below, Israel writes about the series:

The San Leandro Channel runs between Alameda and Oakland. It is a place with special meaning for me. Known locally as "the estuary", it is a tidal channel that links the freshwater streams of the east hills with the ocean.  Every 24 hours, the fresh water in the channel flows out into the San Francisco Bay and then, as the current reverses with the tides, it flows back as salty water. Such water is termed "brackish" and the wildlife and plants in the ecosystem all adapt for living with these cyclic changes.  I find it a metaphor for life, which has inspired my ongoing sculpture series.

Low Tide  was acquired in 2023 by the Art on Campus Task Force as part of an ongoing effort to grow the LPC art collection, with a focus on local Bay area artists.