Suzyonekenobi
Sun Mi No was born on March 5, 1979 in Seoul, South Korea. Just over a year later, on May 27 1980, she was adopted by the Dutch Werff family, changing her name to Susan Werff. From a young age, Susan's greatest passions were drawing and working on the sewing machine. Her creativity and originality shone through during her studies in Fashion Clothing Sales at Ter Welle school in Goes, where she excelled with top grades. In 1996, she pursued Fashion & Graphic Design at the Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam (GLR), also obtaining her retail diploma along the way before successfully completing her education at GLR.
At age 21, Susan began studying Graphic Design at the Rotterdam Willem de Kooning Academy, electing to take on the additional subject of autonomous painting. Under the tutelage of professor Ivan Gonda, who described her as having a "golden touch," her skills flourished. During this period, she took on various side jobs, including merchandising for international artists, promotional work for a DJ and Art Expo and Club Nighttown, also hosting at the innovative
Rotterdam Gallery Showroom MAMA.
Susan's work, now signed under the moniker Suzyone, began attracting attention in the Rotterdam art scene. Her "Mapoeskas" graffiti collaboration with artist Oles adorned the immense walls of the Now&Wow club and was featured on the famous online street art platform Wooster Collective. In 2001, her multi-story piece "From China to Rotterdam," depicting the city's wellknown Asian neighborhood in a 1920s graphic style, was selected for the KunstXpress art route during Rotterdam's stint as European Capital of Culture.
In 2003, Susan pivoted to Graphic Art while studying Graphics and Typography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Here, she delved into various printing techniques, combining them to create tension and experimenting with self-developed methods for printing on fabrics. Her work "La Femme Qui Fume" was acquired by Erasmus University Rotterdam during an exhibition opening.
Under the guidance of renowned Japanese professor Akira Kurosaki in 2004, Susan learned the art of Japanese woodblock printing alongside her fellow students from the Royal Academy. Her work earned a rare compliment from the master himself. That same year, she participated in a Japanese woodblock printing exhibition at Leiden University. Throughout this time, Susan also explored knotting techniques, drawing inspiration from colorful African jewelry to design her own vibrant necklaces using self-developed methods. All her artistic creations now bore the signature Suzyonekenobi.
In recent years, Suzy has expanded into styling, providing interior styling services and, in 2022, clothing styling for renowned author Alejandra Ortiz in Hello Gorgeous magazine. She also blogs and vlogs about art, fashion, food culture, and gadgets. A pivotal moment came in 2022 when independent creative technologist Rodger Werkhoven introduced Suzy to Natalie Summers, coordinator of OpenAI's artists program. Joining a select group that also amongst others included Arno Coenen, Don Allen Stevenson III and Karen X Cheng. Suzy experimented with the then-unreleased AI system, DALL•E 2, opening up a world of creative possibilities with this revolutionary new medium.
In 2023, Suzy combined multiple generative AI models to create artworks exhibited by Dead End Gallery. Her 2024 series "Suzy's Factory" merges various AI techniques to conjure impossibly complex, imaginative worlds deeply influenced by her Asian roots. Blending contemporary themes from pop art, fashion, and gaming culture, her utopian vision features fantasy factories and robotics harmoniously developing applications and medicines for a world where everyone is healthy and happy – a future in which disease is a distant memory.
With an impressive array of exhibitions spanning two decades and a pioneering spirit that fearlessly embraces cutting-edge technologies, Suzyonekenobi, working from Amsterdam, continues to push the boundaries of contemporary art.
Suzyonekenobi Exhibitions:
2001 De Witte Aap - ’D W Aap'
2001 Nighttown - 'The Eldorado'
2001 Rotterdam Cultural Capital - 'From China to Rotterdam'
2004 Club NoW&WoW - ‘Mapoeskas’
2004 Wooster Collective honourful mention
2004 Rotterdam Erasmus University - 'La Femme Qui Fume'
2005 Leiden University Exhibition of Japanese Woodblock Prints with Akira Kurosaki - 'The Hand'
2005 Zeeburg Art Prize Exhibition KNSM Compass Hall - ‘Woodcuts’
2006 Hewlett Packard Expo SMCS
2007 KABK Expo Graphic Art Under Pressure
2008 - 2021 interior & fashion styling, art & culture blogging, African inspired Jewelry
2022 GOGBOT Festival Enschede - Museum of the Future - DALL•E 2 Expo ‘Unreal Estate’
2022 WORM Gallery Rotterdam Expo TEC ART - Art Rotterdam
2022 KADA (Kwartier aan de Amstel) Art Quarter Column
2023 KADA Interview Suzyonekenobi with Rodger Werkhoven about NXT Museum
2023 Amsterdam MASTERS’ EXPO with Dead End Gallery
2023 Fashion Styling including Alejandra Ortiz for Hello Gorgeous Magazine
2023 Groningen ARTPHY with Dead End Gallery
2024 Amsterdam KUNSTRAI with Dead End Gallery
2024 DEAD END GALLERY - participating in expo: ’An Immaterial Force’
