"I've always been interested in representations of the feminine within the history of painting. Its history is something that interests me for many reasons. You might say that painting is a signifier for beauty iself, and the realm of the aesthetic. The subject of "feminine appearance" has also to do with categories of beauty and aesthetics. So I feel like these two things - painting and representations of women - are important to one another, and for me are worthy of a lifetime's investigation. And it's particularly interesting to me to be doing it as a woman when painting has been declared dead. As an act of resistance, I'm very interested in being a painter."

Susanna Coffey
Reprinted from an interview with Michael Rooks, in exhibition catalogue for Susanna Coffey: New York, Tibor De Nagy Gallery, 2001.