Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Weber.
Sarah, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, and I come from a family of hard workers. My parents own a bakery, and by the time I turned fifteen I was getting up at 4 am every Saturday to help open the store. The bakers taught me how to braid bread and decorate birthday cakes, and I learned how to combine labor with creative skill. Instead of sleeping in on Sunday mornings, I would go downtown to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) to take drawing and painting classes as part of their Early College Program. In those classes, I experienced a sense of independence for the first time and fell in love with art. I stayed in those same rooms for many years as I went on to earn my undergraduate degree there. While in some ways my interest in art began as a rejection of the practical, business-oriented mindset of my family, the value of working hard and craftsmanship instilled in me from an early age are things I carry with me in the studio every day.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I paint and draw landscapes that are inspired by personal memories of a place and the language of abstraction. My landscapes brim with biomorphic forms and gestural marks that mimic the succulents and flowers of southern California, but the compositions are punctuated with scribbles and brushstrokes that remind the viewer that the spaces are invented. By creating environments, I am also able to explore gender, decoration, and beauty. Focusing on the floral and exotic, my highly detailed, dense compositions become places where growth and entropy, figure and ground, intertwine. My work may foster the hallucinatory experience of seeing a mirage, where navigating the environment is a disorienting but pleasurable experience.
What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
I believe it is an artist’s responsibility to be present, reflect, and bear witness to an ever-changing world. Although my artwork has never been overtly political, I work intuitively, and from an emotional place, so it is certainly being affected by how I feel about everything that is going on in the world.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I am always making new work in my studio south of the arts district, but I also currently have a solo exhibition titled “Tropical Disease” on view at Anat Ebgi Gallery in Culver City. The exhibition is open through April 20.
Contact Info:
- Website: sarahannweber.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @sarahannweber
Image Credit:
All images courtesy of the artist and Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography by Michael Underwood.
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