ENCINITAS, CA — (September 18, 2009) — Lux Art Institute, San Diego's first LEED-certified interactive art destination, will welcome New York City-based Susan Hauptman as the next artist-in-residence of the 2009/2010 Season.

From November 12 to November 21, Hauptman will be living and working at Lux, while drawing a self-portrait in charcoal. Throughout her career, she has worked only on paper and only in charcoal and pastel to portray her trademark self-portraits and still-life drawings with a level of realism that is nearly trompe l'oeil, a form in which the artist renders an image so precisely that it "tricks the eye" of the viewer. Visitors can "see art happen" while she is in-studio and view her exhibit, featuring numerous examples of these works, through January 9, 2010.

"It is a mesmerizing experience being surrounded by the self-portraits of Susan Hauptman," says Lux Director Reesey Shaw. "Having Susan here at Lux to execute one provides guests a glimpse into the concentration and discovery that her work involves."

Hauptman's deftly executed, life-size charcoal self-portraits depict the artist with near-photographic exactitude, as each portrait stares directly and enigmatically at its viewers while symbolically surrounded by the landscapes of Hauptman's real and imagined lives. Drawn with complete candor and sparing no wrinkle or blemish, the stark self-portraits toy with gender roles, presenting an androgynous-looking Hauptman and challenging notions of feminine beauty. These works, Hauptman's most celebrated subject matter for the past twenty years, display not only her astonishing technical mastery, but also serve as the artist's own means of self-revelation and invention.

Hauptman earned her B.F.A from the University of Michigan and her M.F.A. from Wayne State University in Detroit. She has had solo shows at Forum Gallery, Los Angeles; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Ga.; Tatistcheff Gallery, New York; and Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco. Group exhibitions have included shows at Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Old Lyme, Conn.; Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles; Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia; Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago; and Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna Beach, Calif.

Hauptman's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Ark.; and Norton Gallery of Art, Palm Beach, Fla.

She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, and held the Lamar-Dodd Professorial Chair at the University of Georgia from 1997 to 2000. Hauptman has also been a visiting artist at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; University of California at Santa Barbara; San Francisco Art Institute; and Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

About Lux Art Institute

Lux Art Institute, located in Encinitas, Calif., is redefining the museum experience with the region's only artist-in-residence program that invites artists to live and work on site, while producing a commissioned work of art – start to finish. This one-of-a-kind institution invites visitors to not only "see art," but also to "see art happen."

Throughout each year, Lux invites several significant regional, national and international artists to participate in its residency. Visitors from across the country are able to participate in exclusive liaison-led tours, providing intimate access to the artist-in-residence, the artist's exhibition and the museum's permanent collection of indoor and outdoor art. Lux also offers a wide range of innovative programming for all ages.

The recipient of the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s top design award, the Grand Orchid, and the first art museum in California awarded LEED certification for new construction, Lux is located alongside one of Southern California’s few remaining coastal wetlands. The five-acre site also overlooks the San Elijo Lagoon and is surrounded by a wildlife preserve that stretches to the Pacific Ocean.

Through its Phase II Capital Campaign, Lux plans to add 25,000 square feet of galleries and classrooms. Once completed, the new building will also feature a hilltop plaza and a series of gardens climbing between the galleries and the Artist Pavilion.

Lux Art Institute is located at 1550 South El Camino Real in Encinitas, Calif. Hours are Thursday and Friday, 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and cost is $10 for two visits. For more information about donations, memberships, volunteer opportunities and more, visit http://www.luxartinstitute.org or call 760-436-6611.