Soshana was born in 1927 in Vienna, Austria.  In 1938, when Austria was annexed by Nazi-Germany, Soshana and her family fled to England.  It was here that Soshana first discovered her love of art, and later on in New York, she started taking art lessons under the guidance of her teacher Beys Afroyim.  In 1944, at the age of seventeen, Soshana traveled with Beys through the United States where Soshana met and painted authors, musicians, statesmen and scientists, including Thomas Mann, Arnold Schoenberg, Leon Feuchtwanger, Franz Werfel, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Theodore Dreiser and Hanns Eisler. Soshana and Beys Afroyim were married and in 1946 their son Amos was born.

Soshana’s first major exhibition was held in 1948 in the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Havana, Cuba.  A year later she left America for Europe and eventually settled in Israel.  In 1951 she moved back to Vienna where she studied at the University of Applied Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna.

In 1952 Soshana moved to Paris where she stayed for twenty years, but continued to work and travel throughout the world.  She met and became friends with leading artists and thinkers such as Max Ernst, Alexander Calder and Sam Francis as well as Picasso, who painted her portrait in 1954.  

From 1974 to 1985 Soshana lived again in New York City, and in 1985 she returned to Vienna where she currently resides.  

In March 2008 the Austrian government issued a special stamp in honor of Soshana (image above) which will appear as part of the series “Modern Art in Austria.”  Recently she was honored by the Austrian National Library which will be housing all of her manuscripts, diaries, photographs, etc.  In addition, a documentary on Soshana’s unique life story is being filmed by the Austrian Television Network for broadcast throughout Europe.