Sahar Khoury (born 1973) is an American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

and sculptor. She won the 2019 SECA Art Award and has had work exhibited in multiple institutions such as the

Luggage Store Gallery The Luggage Store Gallery, also known as 509 Cultural Center, is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts organization founded in 1987, and has two venues located in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The organization has sp ...

Wexner Center for the Arts The Wexner Center for the Arts is the Ohio State University's "multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art." The Wexner Center is a lab and public gallery, but not an art museum, as it doe ...

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary Contemporary art, contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that cel ...

, and the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. FAMSF's combined attendance was 1,1 ...

Early life and family

In 1973, Khoury was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Her mother is Iranian, and her father is Jordanian-Palestinian; both of her parents had fled their homeland. Khoury's partner is painter Alicia McCarthy.

Education and career

In 1996, Khoury graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

from the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

. After graduating with her bachelors, Khoury attended printmaking classes at the

Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) is an arts nonprofit that was founded in 1977, and is located at 2868 Mission Street in the Mission District, San Francisco, Mission District in San Francisco, California. They provide art studio spa ...

and studied

screen printing Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen in a "flood stroke ...

and monotypes under artist Michael Roman. In addition to screen printing and monotypes, Khoury uses several mediums throughout her work, including

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

papier-mâché file:JacmelMardiGras.jpg, upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti Papier-mâché ( , , - the French term "mâché" here means "crushed and ground") is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is s ...

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

s, and

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

. She graduated from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 2013 with a Master of Fine Art. Khoury would later become a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

at University of California, Berkeley. In February 2017, Khoury had a solo exhibition called ''THEY'' at the

. In 2018, her work was featured in the

’ triennial “Bay Area Now” exhibit alongside Taravat Talepasand, Woody De Othello, and others. In 2019, Khoury was awarded the SECA Art Award alongside Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle and

Marlon Mullen Marlon Mullen (born 1963) is a painter who lives and works in Contra Costa County, California, maintaining a studio practice at NIAD Art Center. He achieved widespread acclaim for his work when it was displayed at the 2019 Whitney Biennial. In 2 ...

. In that same year, her work was exhibited alongside Julia Goodman and

Krista Franklin Krista Franklin is an American poet and visual artist, whose main artistic focus is collage. Her work, which addresses race, gender, and class issues, combines personal, pop-cultural, and historical imagery. Early life and education Franklin is ...

at the Salina Art Center in

Salina, Kansas Salina is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,889. In the early 1800s, the Kanza tribal land reached eastward from the middle of the Kansas Territory. In 1858 ...

. She also participated alongside Tannaz Farsi, Minoosh Zomorodinia, and others in an exhibit at the

San Francisco Arts Commission The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cal ...

Galleries titled “Part and Parcel” that same year. In 2021, Khoury held residence at the

Headlands Center for the Arts Headlands Center for the Arts hosts an internationally recognized artist-in-residence program, and interdisciplinary public programs. It is situated in a campus of artist-renovated military buildings in the Marin Headlands, in Marin County, Cali ...

Sausalito, California Sausalito ( Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito's ...

. Khoury was commissioned by the

to create several sculptures that culminated in her 2023 exhibit ''Umm'', which was also shown at that Wexner Center for the Arts''.'' Also in 2023, Khoury's work, alongside 29 other artists' work, were acquired by the

through a $1 million donation from the Svane Family Foundation. Khoury has also sculpted several pieces using her dog Esther as inspiration.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khoury, Sahar 1973 births Living people 21st-century American women artists American people of Iranian descent American people of Palestinian descent American women sculptors Artists from Chicago Artists from Oakland, California University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty University of California, Santa Cruz alumni