Sarah Hunter

Sarah Hunter



Sarah Hunter is a Philadelphia based artist. Her work follows in the tradition of still life and narrative painting, here interpreted to evoke a diorama-like feel. The specific source object is as important to her as the way in which the paint is handled or the composition is developed. Hunter's inspirations include artists such as Giotto, Philip Guston and Honore Sharrer, images and writings pertaining to the natural sciences, and the history and landscape of her home city. She currently shows with Rodger Lapelle Galleries and A Square Deal in Philadelphia.


Born Philadelphia, PA 1983

Education
2006 BFA, University of Pennsylvania
2005 Certificate in Painting, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts



Selected Honors and Talks
Panel Discussion, Cheltenham Center for the Arts, February 10, 2013
Artist Talk, Sarah Hunter: Collected Curiosities, Lasalle University Art Museum, November 11, 2011
Residency/VSC Grant, Vermont Studio Center, October 2010
Heicklen and Bogash Award, Mainline Art Center, 2006
The Lance Roy Laufer Memorial Award, PAFA, 2005
The William Emlin Cresson Memorial Travel Scholarship, PAFA, 2004

Statement
I gravitate towards things. I am a collector of the useless almost trash that has been taken to the thrift store or abandoned by a child in a grocery store shopping cart. The objects I have found over the years have created the world depicted in my still life oil paintings. As they are arranged, objects transition from thing to character. Plastic animals congregate in paper cut out ruins, and soon an obscure narrative begins to form. In short, I play.

It is within the safety of this playful form of depiction that I feel most at ease working out my concerns. In these collage-like landscapes devoid of humans, though perhaps indicating a former presence, I attempt to address themes of uncertainty, displacement, and the drive to survive. The paintings don’t tend to offer many answers, often presenting the moment right before or right after something has occurred. It is the stillness and ambiguity of these moments that I hope can lead to a realm of individual interpretation and connection.

Sarah Hunter, 2013