The Rewrite, PanPastel & graphite on paper
EVOLUTION GRANT recipient 2024
STATEMENT
I work to break social taboos surrounding emotional and mental health through my mixed media graphite and pastel drawings, community-based discussions, and the written word. Gentle, ethereal, and at times surreal, my hyperrealistic artworks are best described as “Emotional Realism”.
The vulnerable conversations held with the participants in my work cover topics such as emotional intimacy, domesticity, and resilience through trauma. The emotional experiences shared in these conversations are translated into the drawings, which include the participating individual as the model for the piece themselves. To continue the conversations beyond the studio, each artwork is paired with a written statement about the experience depicted and a question pointed back to the viewer inviting them to engage directly with their own related perspectives.
Through use of figurative realism, a subtle color palette, and concise compositions, the image personifies emotions in a way that can be familiar to many. The goal is to create solidarity with others who can relate to the emotional states being depicted, encouraging more transparency, support, and dialogue amongst our peers; partners; families; and communities at large.
BIO
Sara Gallagher (b.1990, Vallejo, CA) is passionate about breaking the taboos that surround emotional and mental health in the United States. Her experience in working with people with disabilities, the neurodiverse community, and houseless youth brings an empathetic lens into the complex experience of what it is to be human.
Sara received her BFA with a dual emphasis in Painting & Drawing and Photography from SF State in 2013 and studied under the renowned hyperrealism artist Dirk Dzimirsky from 2019-21. Her work has been recognized internationally through numerous awards, publications, museum and gallery exhibitions, and prestigious collections such as The Bennett Collection of Women Realists and The Lunar Codex, The Polaris Collection, on the Moon. Sara is represented by CK Contemporary in San Francisco, CA, and lives and works out of her small studio in a redwood grove in the North Bay hills of Nicasio, CA.
Retrospect, PanPastel & graphite on paper
