Sarah Zapata (1988) is an American

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. ...

artist based in Brooklyn, New York City. Her works address themes of labor, systems of power, queerness, and the intersection of identity.

Early and personal life

Zapata was born in

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi ( ; ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, Texas, Nueces County with portions extending into Aransas County, T ...

in 1988 to a

Peruvian Peruvians (''/peruanas'') are the citizens of Peru. What is now Peru has been inhabited for several millennia by cultures such as the Caral before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Peruvian population decreased from an estimated 5–9 ...

father and American mother. She was raised near Dallas in an

Evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

household. She became interested in fabric and textile arts from a young age, feeling that clothing was one of the only things she could control. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Fibers from the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...

in 2011. She lives in the Red Hook neighborhood of

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City. Zapata identifies as a

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

artist.

Career

Zapata is recognized for her distinctive textile-heavy artwork. Her pieces and latch-hooked carpets veer toward abstraction and perception while drawing inspiration from traditional Peruvian weaving. The majority of Zapata's works include hand-weaving, which is a very time consuming and labor intensive process. Hand-weaving incorporates both traditional and contemporary elements that add to its effect. The duration and endurance that go into hand-weaving make Zapata feel like she has to earn the work. Her early work was woven from

telephone book A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that ...

paper. Since moving to New York City, Zapata has embraced bright colors in her works. This was born initially out of a need to find cheap materials; Zapata worked for a yarn company, and took home materials that would otherwise be thrown out. Zapata's abstract woven artworks symbolically represent her intersectional identities such as her

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

religious upbringing or her

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...

. Zapata’s body of work address issues like labor, systems of power and control, and queerness. Zapata's work has gained more exposure since 2017. Her work has been shown throughout the United States, Mexico, and Peru. In 2016, she was the artist-in-residence at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City. Notable works by Zapata include: ''To Teach or To Assume Authority (2018-2019),'' ''A Famine of Hearing (2019)'' ''and'' ''Standing on the Edge of Time (2019).''

Solo exhibitions

* ''Siempre X'' (2015-2016), El Museo del Barrio, Manhattan, New York City * ''a resilience of things not seen'' (2022-2023),

John Michael Kohler Arts Center The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is an independent, not-for-profit contemporary art museum and performing arts complex located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States.Sheboygan, Wisconsin Sheboygan () is a city in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. The population was 49,929 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Sheboygan Metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan area, which has a pop ...

* ''So the roots be known'' (2023-2024),

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's per ...

, Missouri

Collections

Source *

El Museo del Barrio El Museo del Barrio, often known simply as El Museo (the museum), is a museum at 1230 Fifth Avenue in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is located near the northern end of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, immediately north of the Museum of the City ...

, Manhattan, New York City *

Museum of Art and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the ...

, Manhattan, New York City *

Lima Art Museum The Lima Art Museum (Museo de Arte de Lima, MALI) is an art museum in Lima, Peru. The museum is located in the Palacio de la Exposición. The museum was inaugurated in 1961. The collection includes ceramics, textiles, sculptures, and paintings su ...

, Lima, Peru

References

External links

Sarah Zapata's Personal Website

Sarah Zapata — 2016 Artist In Residence
at the

Museum of Arts and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the ...