Artist

Suzan Benzle

born Dayton, OH 1950
Also known as
  • Suzan Scianamblo Benzle
  • Suzan S. Benzle
  • Mrs. Curtis Benzle
Born
Dayton, Ohio, United States
Active in
  • Hilliard, Ohio, United States
Nationalities
  • American
Biography

Suzan Scianamblo [sha-NAM-bloh] Benzle [BEN-zlee] owns the jewlery design firm Benzle Signature Collection, and was previously involved with her former husband Curtis Benzle in Applied Arts and Benzle Porcelain Company. She has taught at the Arrowmont School of Craft in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, the Columbus College of Art and Design and at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb—where he was awarded her MFA in 1979. She's received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council.

Suzan Benzle's works are in the permanent collections of the Museo Internazionale Della Ceramiche, in Faenze, Italy and the Everson Museum, in Syracuse, N.Y.

White House Collection of American Crafts exhibition (Washington D.C.: National Museum of American Art, 1995)

Luce Artist Biography

After receiving her BFA from Ohio State University in 1972, Suzan collaborated with her then husband, Curtis Benzle, combining her interest in textiles with his desire to create translucent porcelain to make colorful patchwork ceramic vessels. Curtis spoke of Suzan’s early textile work in a 1995 article he wrote for The Studio Potter: "A favorite image of mine was [Suzan’s] newly-dyed silk fabric hanging to dry in the wind." He goes on to explain how the sunlight penetrating the colored silk gave him the idea to incorporate pigment into the clay. Suzan currently designs and sells jewelry in Chattanooga, Tennessee, under her remarried name, Suzan Benzle Boutz.