Schwalb was born in New York City and studied at the High School of Music & Art, and at Carnegie-Mellon University. She has worked in silverpoint and metalpoint drawing for over 40 years.
Schwalb’s oeuvre ranges from drawings and artist books on paper to paintings on wood panels. Her work is represented in most of the major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Gallery, Washington DC, The British Museum, London, The Brooklyn Museum, NY, The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Kupferstichkabinett - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Susan Schwalb has been in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2010,’07, ‘92,’73), the MacDowell Colony (1989, ’75,’74), Yaddo, 1981 and in 1994 had two residencies in Israel at Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Artists’ Studios. She has had over 40 solo exhibitions nationally as well as internationally.

Her work was included “Drawing with Silver and Gold: From Leonardo to Jasper Johns”, opened at the National Gallery of Art, Wash. DC which travel to The British Museum, London. Schwalb was one of only three living artists included in the show. In 2018 a retrospective entitled “A Luminous Line: Forty Years of Metalpoint Drawing by Susan Schwalb” will be exhibited at the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock. She is the co-author of “Silverpoint and Metalpoint Drawing: A Complete Guide to the Medium” published in 2019 by Routledge/Focal Press, UK and NYC. https://www.susanschwalb.com/