I Am Here You Are Not I Love You: Andrew Topolski, Cindy Suffoletto, and Their Life in the Arts
I Am Here You Are Not I Love You: Andrew Topolski, Cindy Suffoletto, and Their Life in the Arts
by Aidan Ryan
University of Iowa Press, 2025 Paper: 978-1-68597-006-2 | eISBN: 978-1-68597-007-9 Library of Congress Classification N6537.T653R93 2025
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Blending the emotional depth of memoir with the breadth of biography, I Am Here You Are Not I Love You attempts to piece together clues from the lives and art of Aidan Ryan’s late uncle and aunt, Andrew Topolski and Cindy Suffoletto. The book presents a critical reexamination of Andrew Topolski, an overlooked luminary of intermedia and postminimalism. In repositioning Topolski’s legacy and vast body of work, Ryan makes compelling findings about the interplay of talent, luck, and community support in the making or breaking of artistic careers. At the same time, the story shares the significant and never-before-seen body of work by Cindy Suffoletto, a talented and inventive artist little shown and never cataloged during her short life. Ultimately, Ryan argues that the time is right for both to take up a privileged place among the great artists of their generation.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Aidan Ryan is a writer, publisher, and filmmaker. His nonfiction and cultural criticism have appeared in the Millions, Public Books, Humanities, White Review, Colorado Review, and Annulet. He is a cofounder of Foundlings Press, senior editor at Traffic East Magazine, and literary curator at Artpark. Ryan lives in Buffalo, New York.
REVIEWS
“I Am Here You Are Not I Love You is a rich and romantic tale of rediscovery for the author, but outright discovery for us. In prose that wanders seamlessly between deeply personal recollections and the cold reality of history, Ryan introduces the reader to his late aunt and uncle, the artists Cindy Suffoletto and Andrew Topolski, the New York art world at the end of the twentieth century, and the long overlooked artistic ferment in his native city of Buffalo. Through the story of his beloved aunt and uncle, Ryan has restored an important missing chapter of the history of American art.”—Mary Gabriel, author, Ninth Street Women