Susan Rothenberg was born in 1945 in Buffalo, New York. After studying at Cornell University, she briefly enrolled at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C., before moving to New York where she studied dance with Deborah Hay and Joan Jonas. Her first solo exhibition was at Greene Street Gallery, New York (1975).

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California toured her solo show across the US and to the Tate Gallery London from 1983 to 1985. Other notable shows include: Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland (1988) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1999-2000), Waddington Galleries, London (2003). Since the mid 1970s she has consolidated her position as one of the leading painters of her generation with major retrospective exhibitions in the USA and Mexico. In 1998 she was awarded the Cornell University Alumni and the Award Skowhegan Medal for Painting then in 2003 she was awarded the Rolf Schock Prize for the Visual Arts.