We are wired to tell stories. To make sense out of nonsense. I’m interested in engaging not only with my own narratives, but also with the narratives that viewers create in response to my work. I love to open up space for ambiguity on the pictorial plane while also providing hints and provocations. I approach my canvases with curiosity. Making marks on a two dimensional surface creates a tension between flatness and the depth that the marks imply. That tension creates a fissure, a little crack in the universe. I feel it’s my job as a painter to crawl into that space and stumble around, to find a light switch and turn it on. Through forging imagery from what emerges, I hope to both invoke and trouble the fundamental narrative impulse that makes us human. The stories that you, the viewer, conjure to make sense of this imagery become an integral part of the work itself. I strive to create a platform for what I see and what you see. To foster the expansion of a larger space that has room to hold it all.
Sarah Sagarin (b. 1976 NYC) has exhibited extensively in New York City, nationally, and internationally. Her work has been included in art fairs in NYC and Japan and her paintings are housed in several private and public collections, including the University of Montana’s permanent collection and the Copelouzos Art Museum in Athens, Greece. She has taught painting, drawing, and composition classes in a variety of settings, including as a Post Graduate Teaching Fellow for NYAA’s MFA program. Sarah has been the recipient of several prestigious residencies and fellowships, including the Bronx Museum of the Arts 2017 AIM Fellowship. She was the Director and a founding member of the South Bronx Independent Artists Coalition which hosted the annual South Bronx Open Studio Tour. Sarah is represented by Prince Street Gallery in New York City
Education
MFA New York Academy of Art 2003 Emphasis in Painting
BFA University of Montana 2000 Dual emphasis in Painting and Ceramics
Lorenzo de Medici Art Institute, Florence, Italy 1998 Painting and Art History
Awards and Residencies
2024 Vermont Studio Center AIR, Johnson VT
2023 Vermont Studio Center AIR, Johnson VT
2022 Ceramics Apprenticeship, Dan Bellow, Great Barrington, MA
2021 Casa Lu, AIR, Mexico City, MX
2020 Copelouzos Family Art Museum 35 x 35 Project, Athens, Greece
2018 Chashama, ChaNorth, Summer Residency, Pine Plains, NY
2017 Con Artist Collective, AIR, Lower East Side, NYC
2016 Joya: Arte + Ecología AIR, Vélez Blanco, Spain
2016 AIM Fellowship, Bronx Museum of the Arts
Solo Exhibitions
2021 I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, Clamp Light Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2017 Happenstance has changed my plans Governor's Island Art Fair/ 4heads Governors Island, NY
2015 Inherently Flawed; Disasters in the Making La Casa Gallery, Harlem, NYC
2-5 Person Exhibitions
2021 Cod Liver Oil and Orange Juice, Casa Lu, Mexico City, Mexico
2020 Realism, Reality, and Surreality, BronxArtSpace, Bronx NY
2018 Angst & Contempt; New Painting Pen & Brush, NYC
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 4Heads Portal Rockaway, Studio 7 Gallery, Fort Tilden NYC
2022 Failings, Ejecta Projects, Carlisle, PA
2020 35x35 Project, Copelouzos Art museum, Athens Greece
Postcards from the Pandemic, Beard and Weil Galleries at Wheaton College, Norton, MA
2019 Wheaton Biennial: Brush Coat Cover, Beard and Weil Galleries at Wheaton College, Norton, MA
South Bronx Artists, Hellgate Arts, Bronx NY
Feels Like a New Beginning, Chashama, One Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn NY
2018 Winter Residency Show Con Artists Collective, NYC
South Bronx Artists 37 Bruckner, Bronx NY
2017 HPGRP Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Bronx Calling: AIM Biennial Bronx Museum of the Arts
2016 Flesh & Bone II, Hillyer Art Space, Washington DC
Osaka Art Fair, Osaka Japan (In partnership with HPGRP NYC)
T.O.A.S.T One Art Space, TriBeCa, NYC
2015 XM Gallery, Crossmedia, Chelsea, NYC
Black and White; Art Imagined in High Contrast, One Art Space, TriBeCa, NYC
Deck the Walls, New York Academy of Art, TriBeCa, NYC
2014 Summer Salon, Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Think Inside the Box, 58 Lispenard Gallery, TriBeCa, NYC
2011 TriBeCa Ball, New York Academy of Art, TriBeCa, NYC
2008 Salon de Refuses, Freddy's Bar, Brooklyn, NY
2007 Everyday Objects in Art; Works from the Permanent Collection, Montana Museum of Art and Culture, Missoula, MT
Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
Footprints, Grand Space, Brooklyn, NY
Panel Discussions and Artist Talks
2021 Open X-Files, Casa Lu, Mexico City, MX
2020 Realism, Reality, and Surreality, BronxArtSpace, Bronx NY
2018 Angst & Contempt; New Painting, Pen & Brush, Moderated by Rahsaan Gandy,
Reviews and Press
Artnet
Editors’ Picks: 13 Things to See in New York This Week
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/editors-picks-april-2-1247603
The Feminist Art Project
Exhibition - "Angst and Contempt: New Painting"\
Mott Haven Herald
First South Bronx Open Studio tour shows off local talent
http://www.motthavenherald.com/2018/06/02/18406/
Washington Post
In the galleries: Bodies that are more than flesh and bone
Inherently Flawed; Disasters in the Making
Review by Julie Condon
http://www.lacasadearte.org/reviews/
The New York Times
An Exhibition Notable for What’s Not There By Paul Berger
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/nyregion/thecity/18cens.html
The New York Observer
Atlantic Yards Without the Controversy By Matthew Scherman
http://observer.com/2007/02/atlantic-yards-without-the-controversy/
NY Arts Magazine
Imagined Interiors Review by Jennifer Wroblewski
http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/?p=3545
The Brooklyn Paper
Images the Brooklyn Public Library Doesn’t Want You to See
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/7/30_07librarycensorship.html