Sarah Cain (born 1979), is an American

contemporary artist Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art i ...

Life

Cain was born in 1979 in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

, and grew up in nearby Kinderhook. She moved to California in 1997 to study art at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

, where she received her BFA in 2001. She went on to study at the

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 ...

, receiving her MFA in studio art and attended the

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 ...

in 2006. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Work

Cain uses a variety of materials, including traditional canvas, stretcher bars, and paint, as well as less common artifacts, including musical notations, leaves and branches. Quinn Latimer described Cain's work: "They court seemingly bad ideas—drawings sport feathers and doilies; installations feature eggs and hippy art teacher-like fabric swatches—and then transform them so deftly into serious painting that it can take a minute to understand what you’re looking at." In 2011, Cain collaborated with George Herms at the

Orange County Museum of Art The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. The museum's collection comprises more than 4,500 objects, with a concentration ...

, where the curator Sarah Bancroft wrote for the accompanying catalog that the two artists share "an interest in language and a frustration over its limits in describing abstract work". She has had solo exhibitions at

Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA; formerly known as the Santa Monica Museum of Art) is a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States. As an independent and non-collecting art museum (or kunsthalle), it e ...

, the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

the Momentary The Momentary is a contemporary art space in Bentonville, Arkansas and operates as a satellite of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It opened on February 22, 2020. It offers free public admission. Overview and founding As part of the o ...

, amongst others. And has been included in collective exhibitions at

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, Imperial Belvedere Palace Museum in Vienna,

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, and the

Busan Biennale The Busan Biennale is a biannual international contemporary art show held in Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a popu ...

. In 2019, she completed her first major permanent public work at San Francisco International Airport: a 150-foot stained glass window with 270 colors, framed in soldered zinc, which was "painstakingly arranged so that no two adjoining fragments are the same shade." In writing about Cain's work for the FLAG Art Foundation, curator

Jamillah James Jamillah James (born 1980) is an American curator. She is the Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Early life and education James grew up in New Jersey. Her mother was a musician. Her early interest in music and film ...

wrote, "At their very core, Cain’s abstract paintings are radical and disorienting in the best possible way. Her attack and command of both physical and pictorial space is incisive yet wildly generous, leaving the viewer with no singular place to stand or look." Poet

Bernadette Mayer Bernadette Mayer (May 12, 1945 – November 22, 2022) was an American poet, writer, and visual artist associated with both the Language poets and the New York School (art), New York School. Early life and education Bernadette Mayer was born ...

in her poem "Dear Sarah", described a painting by the artist as "it's like seeing a rainbow in the middle of the forest."

Monographs

''Sarah Cain: Enter the Center'', Delmonico/Tang
2022.
''Sarah Cain: Music Boo''k, X Artist's Books/Tang, 2021

2016
''Sarah Cain'', LAND, 2012

Selected exhibitions

*''Spotlight: Sarah Cain'', The FLAG Art Foundation, 2024 *''Sarah Cain: My Favorite Season is the Fall of the Patriarchy'',

, Washington, DC, 2021 *''Sarah Cain: In Nature'',

The Momentary The Momentary is a contemporary art space in Bentonville, Arkansas and operates as a satellite of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It opened on February 22, 2020. It offers free public admission. Overview and founding As part of the o ...

at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, curated by Lauren Haynes, 2021 *''Sarah Cain: Opener 33 - Enter the Center'', the Tang Museum at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, 2021 *''Sarah Cain: In Nature'',

at the Crystal Bridges Art Museum, Bentonville, AR, 2021 *''Sarah Cain: Now I'm Going to Tell You Everything'',

, curated by

, 2017 *''Sarah Cain,''

Aspen Art Museum Founded in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Aspen, Colorado, United States. AAM exhibitions include drawings, paintings, sculptures, multimedia installations and electronic media. Building ...

at the Elk Camp on Snowmass Mountain, CO, 2017 *''Sarah Cain: The Imaginary Architecture of Love,'' Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, Raleigh, NC, 2015 *''Sarah Cain: blue in your body, red when it hits the air,''

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is an art museum in La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the ...

, La Jolla, CA, 2015 *''Painting in Place'', Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Los Angeles, CA, 2013 *''Gold'', Curated by Thomas Zaunschirm, Imperial

Belvedere Museum Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa * Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zim ...

, Vienna, 2012 *''SECA Art Award Exhibition'',

, San Francisco, CA, 2007 *''Sarah Cain: I Believe We Are Believers'', Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2006 *''Sarah Cain:'' ''A River of If's'', Queens Nails Annex, San Francisco, CA, 2005

Selected Press

* Jonathan Griffin, "With Big, Bold Art, Sarah Cain Redefines Seriousness in Painting" New York Times, Sept 30, 2021 *

Dodie Kazanjian Dodie Kazanjian (born 1952) is an American writer who specializes in the arts. She is the author or co-author of several books and currently is a contributing editor for ''Vogue'' magazine and director of Gallery Met at the Metropolitan Opera in N ...

, "Sarah Cain is Ready to Take Up Space", Vogue, February 22, 2021 *

Andrew Berardini Andrew Berardini (born August 21, 1982) is an American writer known for his work as a visual art critic and curator in Los Angeles. Described as "the most elegant of all art critic cowboys", Berardini works primarily between genres, which he desc ...

, "She Comes in Colors: A Portrait of Sarah Cain", Momus, May 10, 2017 * Christopher Knight, "Review: ‘Painting in Place’ flings open conceptual abstraction doors" Los Angeles Times, June 13, 2013

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cain, Sarah American contemporary painters 1979 births Living people 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women painters 21st-century American women painters 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters Artists from Los Angeles Artists from Albany, New York UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni San Francisco Art Institute alumni Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni Sculptors from California Sculptors from New York (state)