Susan Dory
ARTIST NAME
Deb Achak is a visual artist and storyteller whose large-scale photographs explore the metaphysical and emotional link between the human and natural world. After stepping away from a 15-year career as a mental health social worker, Achak began her photography practice, employing a visual medium to continue her exploration of the interior lives of herself and others. Curious to examine the notion of our internal selves, she leans into the elasticity of photography by employing several genres within the medium. Achak’s practice includes swimming with her camera throughout the world, personal narratives created near her home, and painterly abstract florals inspired by baroque paintings. Each body of work is made with the singular ideal, to wrestle with what is under the surface in each of us.
Deb Achak’s work has been exhibited widely national and internationally, in institutions such as The National Museum of Anthropology in Tabasco, Mexico, The Lishui Museum of Art in Lishui, China, and The Sofia Photography Festival in Sophia, Bulgaria, The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, the Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville SC, among many others. Her work has been featured in publications including Fraction, All About Photo, Lenscratch, Destig, Luxe Interiors, Dodho, and Domino.
Susan Dory | Inner Weather
January 8th - February 21st, 2026
Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York is pleased to present Inner Weather, a series of new works by Susan Dory. In her sixth solo exhibition with the gallery, Dory continues her long-standing investigation into interconnectivity and perception through a dynamic interplay of color, transparency, and layered form.
In Inner Weather, Dory’s biomorphic and linear shapes congregate and reorganize in intricate, structured patterns. Each composition emerges from color: this series centers on radiant reds, oranges, and yellows, tones that the artist describes as an act of optimism and hope. Dory has also introduced more translucent pigments into her process, combining acrylic paint with a transparent varnish to produce a luminous, “seeing through” effect that suggests movement and transformation.
Working in a studio suffused with natural light, Dory is attuned to the shifts of shadow and reflection that traverse her workspace throughout the day. As sunlight rakes across her canvases—laid flat on sawhorses—shadows distort and reform, leaving traces that she translates into painted form. These ephemeral impressions of light and negative space become an integral part of her compositions, transforming fleeting environmental moments into lasting visual structures.
Furthermore, Dory draws on the irregular geometries of gerrymandered maps, expanding them into a broader meditation on impermanence. These shifting boundaries along with the movement of light and shadow serve as markers that anchor an ongoing inquiry into the temporary states that define our experience.
ARTIST NAME
e Each painting becomes an artifact of this investigation: a singular object that compresses months of decision-making, revision, and fleeting perception into a single encounter. Unlike a film or novel that unfolds over time, Dory’s paintings offer its entire history at once, revealing the accumulation of moments that brought it into being.
Deb Achak is a visual artist and storyteller whose large-scale photographs explore the metaphysical and emotional link between the human and natural world. After stepping away from a 15-year career as a mental health social worker, Achak began her photography practice, employing a visual medium to continue her exploration of the interior lives of herself and others. Curious to examine the notion of our internal selves, she leans into the elasticity of photography by employing several genres within the medium. Achak’s practice includes swimming with her camera throughout the world, personal narratives created near her home, and painterly abstract florals inspired by baroque paintings. Each body of work is made with the singular ideal, to wrestle with what is under the surface in each of us.
Dory’s meticulous layering process creates both a physical and temporal depth. Each layer acts as a record of time, allowing viewers to peer through one form and into another, evoking the constant flux of perception. The resulting surfaces are at once pristine and tactile, inviting contemplation on how memory, observation, and sensation continuously overlap. For Dory, the layered compositions in Inner Weather serve as repositories of experience—a visual metaphor for the fluid nature of temporal landscapes.
Susan Dory was born in Oklahoma City, OK and currently works and resides in Seattle, WA. She studied at Iowa State University in Ames, IA where she received a Bachelor’s of Arts. Dory has received both national and local awards including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Netty Award, the Willard R. Espy Foundation Artist-In-Residence Fellowship and the Ballinglen Art Foundation Fellowship in Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland. Dory’s works have been featured in The Seattle Times, Art in America and Blouin Art Info. Her work is held in numerous public collections including The Tacoma Art Museum, Ballinglen Museum of Contemporary Art, the U.S. Embassy and the Seattle Arts Commission Collection.
Deb Achak’s work has been exhibited widely national and internationally, in institutions such as The National Museum of Anthropology in Tabasco, Mexico, The Lishui Museum of Art in Lishui, China, and The Sofia Photography Festival in Sophia, Bulgaria, The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, the Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville SC, among many others. Her work has been featured in publications including Fraction, All About Photo, Lenscratch, Destig, Luxe Interiors, Dodho, and Domino.
Susan Dory
Charm Guide 1, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
17.5 x 13.5 inches (framed)
Susan Dory
Charm Guide 2, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
17.5 x 12.75 inches (framed)
Susan Dory
Charm Guide 3, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
17.75 x 13.5 inches (framed)
Susan Dory
Tombolo, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
20.25 x 16 inches
Susan Dory
Structural Cure, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
16 x 20.25 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 1, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 2, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 3, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 4, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 5, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 6, 2025
Acrylic on paper
18 x 24 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 7, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 8, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 9, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 10, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
18
Susan Dory
Future Perfect 11, 2025
Acrylic on paper
x 24 inches
Susan Dory
Maps to Stars, 2025
30 x 24 inches
Acrylic on canvas over panel
Susan Dory
Zephina, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
30 x 24 inches
Susan Dory
Voyelles, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
30 x 24 inches
Susan Dory
Alazne, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
30.5 x 40 inches
Susan Dory
Daupnine 8, 2025
32 x 40 inches
Acrylic on canvas over panel
60 x 52 inches
Susan Dory
Isthmus 1, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
Susan Dory
Isthmus 2, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
52 x 60 inches
42
Susan Dory
Listening Palace, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
x 48 Inches
Susan Dory
Love’s Dart, 2025
Acrylic on canvas over panel
48 x 42 inches
Susan Dory
Recognized Rare Forms 1, 2025
Acrylic on panel
8 x 6 inches
Susan Dory
Recognized Rare Forms 2, 2025
Acrylic on panel
8 x 6 inches
Susan Dory
Recognized Rare Forms 3, 2025
Acrylic on panel
8 x 6 inches
Susan Dory
Recognized Rare Forms 4, 2025
Acrylic on panel
8 x 6 inches
Susan Dory
Recognized Rare Forms 5, 2025
Acrylic on panel
8 x 6 inches
Susan Dory
Recognized Rare Forms 6, 2025
Acrylic on panel
8 x 6 inches
Susan Dory
Recognized Rare Forms 7, 2025
Acrylic on panel
8 x 6 inches
Susan Dory
Recognized Rare Forms 8, 2025
Acrylic on panel
8 x 6 inches
SUSAN DORY SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1964 Born in Oklahoma City, OK
EDUCATION
1990-91
Universitaet Wien, Vienna, Austria
1987
Bachelor of Arts, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Slipstream, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
Women of the Pacific, The Bo Bartlett Art Center, Columbus State University
NW, traveling exhibition to The Ashville Art Museum, Ashville, NC, Columbus, GA
2023
Spontaneous Sight, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
Lines and Color, Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA
2021
Maps to Stars, Tew Gallery, Atlanta, GA
See Through (online), Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
2020
Organized Abstraction, Tew Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Containment (digital), Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
2019
Exotic Mass, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2018
Vision Division, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
2016
Micromega, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2013
Motherlode, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
Jetset, Guthrie Contemporary, New Orleans, LA
Petit Tableaux, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
New Paintings, Guthrie Contemporary, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
25th Anniversary Exhibition, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
2020
Cut Up: works by Rogan Brown, Susan Dory, Andreas Kocks, Tiffanie Turner, and Dustin Yellin, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
Power of Pastel: Soothing Effects of Color, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
2017
Group, Carneal Simmons, Dallas, TX
2016
V2, American Painting Now, curated by Matthew Offenbacher, Seattle, WA
Fiction (With Only Daylight Between Us), v2, Boecker Contemporary, Heidelberg, Germany and Corridor Projects, Dayton, OH
Out Of Site, King Street Station/Vital 5, Seattle, WA
2015
Miami Projects, Winston Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
Remains to be Seen, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
If Not For You, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
2014
Pop of Color: Group Show Featuring Christopher Boffoli, Susan Dory, Erich Woll, Tracy Rocca and Julie Speidel, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2013
New Selections, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2012
Petits Tableaux, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2011
Marked, Kittredge Art Gallery, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
Susan Dory | Inner Weather
January 8th - February 21st, 2026
Winston Wächter Fine Art
530 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
(212) 255-2718
nygallery@winstonwachter.com
Publication ©2025 Winston Wächter Fine Art
All rights reserved
Catalog Design by Nóra Reynolds
Cover: Alazne, 2025
