Sarah Sze
Encyclopedia
Sarah Sze is a contemporary artist
who lives and works in New York City. Sze uses ordinary objects to create sculptures and site-specific installations.
in 1991. She then received a MFA from the School of Visual Arts
, New York in 1997.
Her intricate works, each of which she constructs by hand, consist of unexpected and carefully arranged combinations of materials. Sze transforms these everyday objects into gravity-defying works in horizontal and tower-like formations that zigzag into the heights of gallery spaces.
Sze is 2003 recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant".
Sze is represented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
in New York and Victoria Miro Gallery
in London.
, and their two daughters.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
who lives and works in New York City. Sze uses ordinary objects to create sculptures and site-specific installations.
Early life
Sze graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1991. She then received a MFA from the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
, New York in 1997.
Career
Since the late 1990s Sarah Sze's signature sculptural aesthetic has presented ephemeral installations that penetrate walls, suspend from ceilings and burrow into the ground. The artist creates immense, yet intricate site-specific works which manipulate every space—be that a gallery, domestic interior or street corner—and profoundly affects the way it is viewed. Sze's practice exists at the intersection of sculpture, painting and architecture where her formal interest in light, air and movement is coupled with an intuitive understanding of colour and texture. Sze utilises a myriad of everyday objects in her installations from cotton buds and tea bags to water bottles and ladders, light bulbs and electric fans. Presented as leftovers or traces of human behaviour, these items, released from their commonplace duty possess a certain vitality and ambition within the work. Her careful consideration of every shift in scale between the humble and the monumental, the throwaway and the precious, the incidental and the essential solicits a new experience of space, disorienting and reorienting the viewer at every turn.Her intricate works, each of which she constructs by hand, consist of unexpected and carefully arranged combinations of materials. Sze transforms these everyday objects into gravity-defying works in horizontal and tower-like formations that zigzag into the heights of gallery spaces.
Sze is 2003 recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant".
Sze is represented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is an art gallery located in Chelsea in New York City founded by Tanya Bonakdar. Since its inception in 1994, the gallery has maintained a consistent and rigorous program in the exhibition of new work by contemporary artists in all media, including painting, sculpture,...
in New York and Victoria Miro Gallery
Victoria Miro Gallery
The Victoria Miro Gallery is a leading British contemporary art gallery in London, with an international reputation, run by Victoria Miro, one of the "grandes dames of the Britart scene", who first exhibited Chris Ofili and the Chapman Brothers...
in London.
Personal life
Sze lives in New York with her husband, Siddhartha MukherjeeSiddhartha Mukherjee
Siddhartha Mukherjee is an Indian-born American physician, scientist and writer. He authored the 2010 book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction...
, and their two daughters.
Exhibitions
- 2009 - “Sarah Sze,” Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle
- 2008 - “Sarah Sze,” Maison Hermès 8F Le Forum, Tokyo, Japan
- 2007 - “Sarah Sze,” Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK
- 2006 - “Sarah Sze,” Malmo Konsthall, Malmo, Sweden
- 2006 - “Corner Plot,” Doris C. Freedman Plaza, New York
- 2006 - “Model for Corner Plot,” Agassiz House, Radcliffe Yard, Cambridge, MA
- 2005 - “Sarah Sze,” Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
- 2005 - “An Equal and Opposite Reaction,” the Seattle Opera, Seattle, WA, (permanent installation)
- 2004 - “Blue Poles,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (permanent installation)
- 2004 - “Sarah Sze: The Triple Point of Water”, Fondazione Davide Halevim, Milan, Italy
- 2003 - “Sarah Sze: The Triple Point of Water,” The Whitney Museum, New York
- 2002 - “Sarah Sze,” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA
- 2002 - “Grow or Die,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (permanent installation)
- 2001 - “Sarah Sze,” Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, Bard College, NY
- 2001 - “Drawn,” Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, San Diego, CA
- 2000 - “Sarah Sze,” Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
- 1999 - “Sarah Sze,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago, IL
- 1999 - “Sarah Sze: Still Life with Flowers,” Galerie fur Zeitgenossische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany
- 1999 - “Sarah Sze,” Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
- 1998 - “Sarah Sze,” Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
- 1997 - “Migrateurs,” Musee d’Art Modern de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
- 1997 - “White Room,” White Columns, New York
Museum collections
- Musmhbikjmllioulk;io;lk,eum of Modern Art, New York
- Whitney Museum of American ArtWhitney Museum of American ArtThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, New York - Guggenheim MuseumSolomon R. Guggenheim MuseumThe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
, New York - The New Museum, New York
- San Francisco Museum of Modern ArtSan Francisco Museum of Modern ArtThe San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
, San Francisco, CA - Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
- Museum of Contemporary ArtMuseum of Contemporary Art San DiegoThe Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego , in San Diego, California, USA, is an art museum focused on the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art from 1950 to the present.-History:...
, San Diego, San Diego, CA - Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI
- Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
- Walker Art CenterWalker Art CenterThe Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Minneapolis, MN - National Gallery of VictoriaNational Gallery of VictoriaThe National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, Australia - Cartier Foundation, Paris, France
- 21st Century Museum of Art, Kanazawa, Japan
- Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- Fogg Museum of Art, Boston, MA
- Museum of Contemporary ArtMuseum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoThe Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
, Chicago, Chicago, IL
Grants
- 2003–2008 - MacArthur Fellow, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- 2005–2006 - Mildred Londa Weisman Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
- 2003 - Lotos Club Foundation Prize in the Arts
- 2002 - Atelier Calder Residency, Sachè, France
- 1999 - Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
- 1997–1998 - The Space Program Studio Residency, The Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation
- 1997 - Visual Art Grant Award, Rema Hort Mann Foundation
- 1997 - Paula Rhodes Memorial Award
- 1996 - School of Visual Arts Graduate Fellowship
Teaching
- 2009–Present - Professor, Columbia University, School of the Arts
- 2005–2008 - Adjunct Professor, Columbia University, School of the Arts
- 2002–2004 - Lecturer, Columbia University, School of the Arts
- 1999–2002 - Lecturer, School of Visual Art, Master of Fine Arts Program
- 1998 - Visiting Lecturer, Yale University, Intersections of Art and Architecture