Artist Statement

The core of my art practice grows from the desire to bridge knowledge of the past and the experience of our present as we push into the future. To this end, I cross-pollinate movements of thought with historical art materials and digital technologies. This intersection of old and new allows me to explore the multiple overlaps of scientific development and cultural practices in my work. Recently, I have been developing these layers of thought and process into installation pieces using historic photographic printing techniques to examine issues of climate change we enter this era of uncertainty. 

I am both a photographer and a painter, often melding the two together to push the definitions of both mediums. Photographically, my work collapses time, mashing 21st century technology with 19th century early photographic chemistry. In contrast, the paintings start with traditional materials, which I apply to more modern substrates like metal or photographs.

Within the last few years my art has evolved from work rooted in examining the way we think and perceive, to directly questioning how our modes of thought impact the planet and our future. As a result, since 2019, I have searched out opportunities that allow me to develop and grow as a photographer and installation artist bridging art and science. For example, in earlier work, as an artist in residence for Joshua Tree National Park, I explored the change between the “sublime gaze” as a product of the expansionist 19th Century versus the horizonless, close up, vantage of the 21st Century and how that shift reflects our time. Or in the site-specific Erased Landscape, Found Memory, a series of very large cyanotypes filled the windows of the gallery. Each image started with a photograph taken through the window but was combined with other images to create a fake photograph thereby questioning reality. In contrast, my two current projects speak directly about the climate crisis. The first, Portraits of Pacific Plankton uses photographs taken while studying climate change on the zooplankton food web from a research boat off the Oregon coast and brings it together with both the history of photography and of climate science, to inform the viewer. In the second, Ghost Forest, I take the ash from west coast wildfires and transform it into photographs that I print on glass. The piece moves photography off the wall, creating an immersive experience that speaks about the urgency of our climate situation.

Biography

Sarah Grew creates art based in painting and photography, that expands into installation and environmental art and contracts into collage and printmaking. Her work includes a range from public art projects to wall based pieces belonging in private collections nationally and internationally. In researching the concepts that enrich her work she has become a beekeeper, studied native plant habitats, and worked as an Artist-in-Residence for a recycling facility in California. Recently, she was an artist in residence on a science research boat studying the effects of climate change on the plankton food web. Previously, Grew was awarded residencies at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Playa Artist Residency, the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Joshua Tree National Park, the Collegeum Phaenomonologicum in Italy, Brush Creek and the Ucross Foundation. She has also received several support fellowships from The Ford Family Foundation. Currently, Grew is working on a several of time-bending projects; paintings that examine modes of expressing time through layering visual art technologies from different periods and concurrently, a photography project using early printing methods to speak to climate change and the fragility of our planet.

  Curriculum Vitae (.pdf)

Recent Radio and Video links

NPR on KLCC, Viz City Review: Worth the Trip: Sarah Grew at Lane CC

Artist Talk at LCC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5kvsasmAuo&t=6s

SARAH GREW

ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2023 Black and Blue, California State University Stanislaus, Turlock, CA

2023 Haunted Ecologies, Center for the Study of Women in Society, LaVerne Krauss Gallery, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

2023 Out of the Ashes, Art at the Cave, Vancouver, WA

2022 The Ghost Forest, work in progress, Lane Community College, Eugene, OR

2019 Erased Landscape, Found Memory, Umpqua valley Art Association, Roseburg, OR

2019 Collections, Oregon State University Memorial Union Art Gallery, Corvallis, OR

2019 Collage of Moments, Oregon Art Supply, Eugene, OR

2018 Round Table, Lauren Fisher Gallery, Eugene, OR

2017    Breath and Time, Lane Community College Art Gallery, Eugene, OR

2017    Photography as Drawing, O’Brien Photography Gallery, Eugene, OR

2016    Momenti e Spazio, Collegium Phaenomenologicum, Hotel le Mura, Cittá di Castello, Italy

2010    The Edge of Things, A Healing Space, Eugene, OR

2009    Constellations,A Healing Space, Eugene, OR

2008    Fairbanks Gallery, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

2007    Swarms,Winter’s Hill Winery, Lafayette, OR

2005    Winter Songs,Studio Project, Eugene, OR

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022    The Overstory, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

2022 Time, Analog Forever Magazine, Los Angeles, CA, online exhibition

2022    Connection, Blue Sky Members Exhibition, Portland, OR, online exhibition

2022 LensCulture Critics’ Choice 2022, International Contemporary Photography Resource https://www.lensculture.com/sarah-13

2022 The Love Show, Tenth Anniversary Celebration, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA

2022    Photozone at Midtown, Midtown Arts Center, Eugene, OR

2021    Eugene Grid Project, Mahon Sweet Airport, Eugene, OR

2021    Transition 2021, Blue Sky Gallery Members Exhibition, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR

2020    Mayors Art Show 2020, multiple locations in Eugene, OR

2020 Visualizing 2020: Blue Sky Gallery Members Exhibition, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland OR

2020 Intersections, Umpqua Valley Arts Center, Roseburg, OR

2020    Marine Food Webs: Drifters to Swimmers, National Science Foundation Invited Artist, Giustina Gallery, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

2019    Blue Sky 2019 Pacific Northwest Viewing Drawers, (April 2019 – March 2020), Blue Sky Gallery,       Portland, OR

2019    Around Oregon, The Art Center, Corvallis, OR

2019    Artworks Northwest 2019, Umpqua Valley Arts Association, Roseburg, OR

2019    Five Selected Artists, Corridor Gallery, Umpqua Valley Arts Association, Roseburg, OR

2019    Something Blue, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA

2019     Eugene Grid Project Photography, InEugene Real Estate, Eugene, OR

2018     Libby Wadsworth/Sarah Grew Open Studio, Eugene, OR

2018     Focus 2018, b.j. spoke gallery, Huntington, NY

2018     Cascadia, Carnegie Crossroads Art Center, Baker City, OR

2017     Residential College Alumni Exhibition, RC Art Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

2017     Views from Oregon: Sixteen Artists, Ucross Foundation Art Gallery, Ucross, WY

2017     Sarah Grew/Libby Wadsworth Open Studio, Eugene, OR

2017     Photozone 2, O’Brien Photography Gallery, Eugene, OR

2016     Photography Now!, Umqua Valley Art Association, Roseberg, OR

2016     Art Now: Photography, Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI

2016    Same but Different, New York Center for Photographic Arts, New York, NY

2016     Expressions West, Coos Bay Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR 

2015     Luninous Light, Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR

2015     Abstract Catalyst, Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, OR

2015     Tributary, Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, OR

2015     Brush, Moss Studio, Eugene, OR

2014     Sarah Grew/Libby Wadsworth open studio, Eugene, OR

2014     South Willamette Art Walk, Eugene, OR

2012     Best of Photography 2012, Photographer’s Forum, Santa Barbara, CA

2012     Wax, Brooklyn Art Space, Brooklyn, NY

2012     The Love Show, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA

2011     Portals, Corvallis Art Center, Corvallis, OR 

2010     Luminous Layers, Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, Lake Oswego, OR

2010     The Living River, Jacobs Gallery, the Hult Center, Eugene, OR

2008     The Art of Trading Cards , Jacobs Gallery, The Hult Center, Eugene, OR

2008     Translucent, Contemporary Works in Wax, Cain Schulte Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2008     Re-Art: Re-found, Re-used, Recycled, Lane Arts Council Gallery at the Airport, Mahlon Sweet Field  Airport, Eugene, OR

2008     Reliquary: the Everyday Sacred, Claire Flint, Sarah Grew, Ken Herrin, Jacobs Gallery, The Hult Center,            Eugene, OR 

2007     Dig It, Mark Woolley Gallery, Portland, OR

2007     Silent Searches: Sarah Grew and Tracy Heller, Monterey Peninsula College Art Gallery, Monterey CA

2007     Sarah Grew and Charles Reilly, Tamarack Gallery, Eugene, OR

2007     Tendrils and Boughs: 5 Artists Inspired by Nature, Maude Kerns Art Center, Eugene, OR

2007     Abstract Painting, The Drawing Studio, Tucson, AZ

2006     New Photography, Tamarack Gallery, Eugene, OR

2006     Maude Kerns Art Center Annual, Maude Kerns Art Center, Eugene, OR

2006     Mayor’s Art Show, Jacobs Gallery, the Hult Center, Eugene, OR

2006     Parts and Pieces: Collage, ArtCentric, Corvallis, OR

2006     Assembling Through Space, Firehouse Gallery, Rogue Community College, Grants Pass, OR

2006     Reassessing Everyday Objects, Wiseman Gallery, Rogue Community College, Grants Pass, OR

2005     Maude Kerns Art Center Annual, Maude Kerns Art Center, Eugene, OR

2005     Mayor’s Art Show, Jacobs Gallery, the Hult Center, Eugene, OR

2005     Small Works, Firehouse Studio, Eugene, OR

2004     Open Studio at Taking the Leap, East Bay Open Studios, ProArts, Oakland, CA

2004     “Untitled”, Hollis Street Project, Emeryville, CA

RESIDENCIES and AWARDS

2022 Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Woodside, CA

2022     Crital Mass Top 50 2022, Photolucida, Portland OR

2022 Lens Culture Critics Choice Award 2022, Selected by Jasper Bode, Ravestijn Gallery https://www.lensculture.com/sarah-13

2021     Jane Stevens King Residency at Lane Community College, Eugene, OR

2019     Artist-at-Sea Residency, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Sitka, OR

2018    Playa Artist Residency Program, Summer Lake, OR

2018    The Ford Family Foundation Fellowship for Oregon Artists

2017    Joshua Tree National Park Artist in Residence Program, Twentynine Palms, CA

2016    Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Woodside, CA

2016    The Ford Family Foundation Fellowship for Oregon Artists

2016    Collegium Phaenomenologicum, Artist in Residence, Cittá di Castello, Italy

2016    Brush Creek Foundation, Artist in Residence, Saratoga, WY 

2016    New York Center for Photographic Arts, Same but Different

2013    Ucross Foundation Artist in Residence, Sheridan WY

2013    Ford Family Foundation Fellowship for Oregon Artists

2011    Playa Artist Residency Program, Summer Lake, OR

2009    STUDIO Resident Artist Program, Eugene, OR

PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS

2016     Our City – Then and Now, The Arthur, Portland, OR

2015     Reaction Paintings for La Fièvre, French translation of Wallace Shawn play, published by Les Editions du Paquebot, France

2007     Coast Valley Cascade, Crescent Village Development, Arlie Company, Eugene, OR

PUBLICATIONS and PRESENTATIONS

On Seeing | Crabbe, Frye, Grew, and Goldband & Konar, Griffin Museum of Photography https://griffinmuseum.org/event/on-seeing-amber-crabbe-melinda-hurst-frye-sarah-grew-ellen-konar-steve-goldband/

Ghost Forest at Lane Community College https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5kvsasmAuo&t=6s

The Hand Magazine, Issue #35, January 2022. https://www.thehandmagazine.space/issue-35-purchase-and-artists-links/

Photographing Plankton Off Oregon, Blake Andrews, Eugene Weekly, https://www.eugeneweekly.com/2020/01/09/photographing-plankton-off-oregon/  January 9, 2020

Sea Science and Art, by Brett Yager, Newport News Times, https://newportnewstimes.com/article/sea-science-and-art, July 30, 2019

On Photography: Paul Carter Interviews Photographer-Painter Sarah Grew, Eugene Scene https://www.eugenescene.org/on-photography-paul-carter-interviews-photographer-painter-sarah-grew/

Carnegie Art Center, Cascadia, exhibition Catalog 2018

Ford Family Ford Foundation, Views form Oregon: Sixteen Artists at the Ucross Foundation, exhibition catalog, 2017

Wallace Shawn, La Fievre, Les Editions du Paquebot, 2015

EDUCATION

1982   B.A. cum Laude, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

1980 School of Visual Arts of New York, Summer Program in Tangiers, Morocco