Sarah Crowner

Casey Kaplan is pleased to present an exhibition of recent work by Sarah Crowner. The exhibition, Crowner’s third with the gallery, debuts a new series of large-scale work.

The paintings in the exhibition demonstrate Crowner’s continually innovative approach to the medium and affinity for formal play. Each painting is made using the unique sewn methodology that has come to define her practice, whereby individual sections of canvas are cut from patterns, painted, and stitched together. In these new works, the artist expands her visual language through acute variations in scale and color. Shifting her focus away from the pairing of primary colors that dominated her last exhibition at the gallery (Weeds, 2018), Crowner employs secondary colors such as, bright violets, searing oranges and acidic lime, creating a lush, polychromatic environment. The application of acrylic paint in each composition varies from densely saturated patches of canvas that appear dyed, to loose and familiar expressionist brushwork, to even tighter washes of color that recall the soak-stain technique of Helen Frankenthaler. Culling inspiration from art history and the organic world, the works in the exhibition maintain a kinetic quality, rife with the hues and lyrical fecundity of nature. With a masterful handling of surface, color and form, Crowner continues to challenge the constraints of material and embrace the endless possibilities of abstraction.

Sarah Crowner (b. 1974, Philadelphia, PA) lives and works in New York. Forthcoming exhibitions and projects include The Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico, Fall 2021 and a large-scale commission for the US Embassy of Honduras in 2022. Recent projects include participation in the 57th edition of the Carnegie International (2018); scenography and costume design for Jessica Lang’s Garden Blue with the American Ballet Theater (2018), as well as a permanent site-specific installation at the Wright Restaurant at the Guggenheim Museum (2017.) In 2016 Crowner's work was the subject of a solo exhibition at MaSS MoCA, with a catalogue published on the occasion. Crowner participated in a major survey exhibition on abstract painting at the Walker Art Center in MN in 2013 and was included in the 2010 Whitney Biennial curated by Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari. Her work is held in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA amongst others.