Sara Sizer
Biography
Solo exhibitions |
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2021 | 'Gestalten', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE |
2018 | Third Person, Gallery Sofie Van Velde, Antwerp, Belgium |
2016 | LEAVES Sara Sizer Paintings, Cosar HMT Galerie Düsseldorf, Germany |
2013 | FINDS Sara Sizer Paintings, Andrae Kaufmann Gallery, Berlin, Germany |
2011 | CASTING LIGHT Sara Sizer Paintings. Andrae Kaufmann Gallery. Berlin, Germany |
2007 | GIVENS ein Project für Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, Berlin, Germany |
2002 | SARA SIZER, NEW WORK Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, New York |
2001 | SARA SIZER PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS Harry Simon Gallery, Morristown, New Jersey, USA |
1999 | SARA SIZER OBJECTS Goliath Gallery, Brooklyn, New York |
1997 | SARA SIZER PAINTINGS The Wein Center, New York, NY |
Group exhibitions |
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2020 | 'L'heure bleue', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde & PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, BE |
2018 | Hamburger Kunsthalle HONEY, I REARRANGED THE COLLECTION #3 Bouncing in the Corner. Die Vermessung des Raum, GE |
2017 | a.fair, COSAR HMT, Düsseldorf |
2016 | Textile Abstraction, Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogota |
2015 | Second Nature, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp |
2013 | "Distracting Surface" Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn & Taxis Bregenz, Austria |
2012 | "Measure for Measure" Niels Borch Jensen Galerie, Berlin, Germany |
2011 | "About Painting" abc Art Berlin Contemporary. Station-Berlin, Berlin, Germany |
2003 | „After Matisse Picasso“ P.S.1 New York, NY |
2000 | „The Trunk Show“ Zoller Gallery, Penn State University |
1999 | „Souvenirs Documents 20 Years“ P.S. 122 Gallery, New York, NY |
1995 | "Real Life" SOHO20 Gallery, New York, NY |
1991 | "In Full Effect" White Columns Gallery, New York, NY |
Publications |
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2016 | leaves, DISTANZ Verlag, 19 color images leporello with printed slipcase, text by Falk Wolf. http://www.distanz.de/de/books/new-publications/detail/backPID/new-publications/products/sara-sizer-1.html |
2014 | DISTRACTING SURFACE Berufsvereinigung Bildender Künstlerinnen und Künstler Vorarlbergs, 64 pgs. color illus. text by Antonio Catelani www.kuenstlerhaus-bregenz.at |
2013 | FINDS DISTANZ Verlag 48 pgs. color illus. text by Julian Heynen http://www.distanz.de/index.php?id=56&L=0&tt_products[product]=142&cHash=69487137539ec2b58620d93a563754e5 |
2001 | Sara Sizer IDEA2001 28 pgs. color illus. text by Daniel Marzona Museum of East Texas, Lufkin, Texas |
Artworks

Sara Sizer
Stand, 2020
Painted velvet
80 x 80 cm

Sara Sizer
Holiday, 2021
Painted velvet
120 x 120 cm

Sara Sizer
Believer, 2021
Painted velvet
120 x 120 cm

Sara Sizer
Paar, 2021
Painted velvet
80 x 80 cm

Sara Sizer
Fremde #1, 2018
Black cotton on wood stretcher
80 x 60 cm

Sara Sizer
Fremde #10, 2018, Black cotton on wood stretcher, 50x40cm

Sara Sizer
Fremde #5, 2018
Black cotton on wood stretcher
100 x 80 cm

Sara Sizer
Fremde #7, 2018
Black cotton on wood stretcher
80 x 60 cm

Sara Sizer
Fremde #13, 2018
Black cotton on wood stretcher
140 x 90 cm

Sara Sizer
Kopf #6, 2018
oil on linen
80 x 60 cm

Sara Sizer
Kopf #9, 2018
oil on linen
60 x 50 cm

Sara Sizer
Kopf #12, 2018
oil on linen
100 x 80 cm

Sara Sizer
Kopf #4, 2018
oil on linen
50 x 40 cm

Sara Sizer
Kopf #11, 2018
oil on linen
100 x 80 cm

Sara Sizer
Here, 2018
Velvet on wood stretcher
100 x 80 cm

Sara Sizer
Siren, 2018
Velvet on wood stretcher
100 x 130 cm

Sara Sizer
Eve, 2018
Velvet on wood stretcher
130 x 90 cm

Sara Sizer
Chronicle, 2017
Velvet on wood stretcher
120 x 100 cm

Sara Sizer
Tat, 2016
Velvet on wood stretcher
200 x 130 cm
Press
Sara Sizer´s works are paintings, but not made with paint in the conventional sense. Rather these paintings are simply stretched, raw linen which have been partially bleached to reveal images. Some paintings depict forms taken from the garden achieved by spraying bleach around trees, railings and plants. These especially take on a mysterious, quasi abstract appearance sometimes suggesting funnel clouds or strange colums. These works look like paintings but have nothing on their surface. The support of the painting itself, partly bleached by chemicals, is the painting. This only superficially meets our idea of a painting. The bleach is mostly applied with a brush having the same gesture as if it was painted with paint but with the difference that the application is irreversible. The process can be stopped but not withdrawn, no overpainting, no erasing. Sizer´s way of working to control the paintings through a chemical process leads to the conception of images and the planning of form akin to the sculptor´s and photographer´s. Seen from a semiotical perspective many of these works are indexical in the sense that traces of already existing objects are necessarily imbedded on the canvas. This colorless „painting“ does not remind us „of what was“ (Roland Barthes). The fact that they don´t recall anything real but rather bring to mind a vague memory of something seen contributes to their mystery and creates at the same time their aesthetic identity. In this way the results of Sizer´s process as seen in her paintings sensitize our perception and sharpen our intuition for correlations. Our perception of architecture, zones of light and shadow, show the same bright and dark contrast which are similarly manifested in the untreated and treated areas of Sizer´s works. For example the phenomenon which occurs when a coffee cup is left on a newspaper in the sunlight and a sillouette of the cup becomes „burned“ after a time onto the newspaper should be common to us but rather seldom attracts our conscious attention. It could be said that Sizer activates these ephemeral possibilities of the everyday capturing these transient motifs on the canvas and finally allowing them to imprint themselves leaving their simple forms forever. Once there, they tell their tale with a calm intensity and stoic presence which upon reflection throws us back to ourselves and back to the still possible act of pure perception. Through a crack in the darkness, on a very bright day, on a wall with windows which was perpendicular to another wall, an image emerged on the ceiling of my bedroom. It was upside down which became more obvious when someone began waving out of the window. Reading Friedrich Kittler´s „Optical Media“ I found myself in the possession of a chance camera obscura. Similar pleasures are given to us by Sara Sizer´s paintings. by Jürgen Drescher |