(b. 1986 Boston, MA, USA) received her MFA in Painting from Yale University in 2015. She gained a joint BA and BFA from Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design in 2009. Faux lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Faux is a painter whose somatic work lies at the threshold of figuration and abstraction. Her paintings embrace unabashed sensuality, autonomy and pleasure. Faux's fluid compositions teeter on the edge of reality, revealing how much of our emotional and sensory lives take place beneath the surface. Initially, her works often appear abstract. Overlapping volumes of luminous color are seductively tied together by quick, writhing line drawings. In disorientating configurations, Faux mirrors and inverts bodily forms in close crops. Within her pools of luscious paint, viewers slowly discern moments of clarity - a resting hand, a knowing eye. As Faux extends the period between perception and recognition, she invites curious exploration: 'it's like your eye is touching the canvas, rearranging fragments.'[1] Organized from a first-person perspective, Faux's paintings build on an earlier feminist approach, that of painters Joan Semmel and Luchita Hurtado. This viewpoint creates an out-of-body experience for the viewer, who viscerally participates in their creation. Faux states: 'I can show feminized bodies in greater complexity, not exclusively as products of gender norms. My paintings embody all kinds of feelings: enjoyment in objectification, full-on hedonism, introverted depression, connectedness or alienation from the body…'[2] Through her sensory explorations, Faux creates an erotic abstract world. Faux has been the recipient of numerous residencies and grants, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2023-2024); The Clyfford Still Museum Residency, Denver, CO (2024); a Keyholder Fellowship at the Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY, USA (2018-19), and Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA (2017, 2012). Solo exhibitions include Autofriction, Hales New York, USA; Whatever I see I swallow at M+B, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Perfect for Her at Capsule Shanghai, China; Seether at Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY, USA; and Gemini, Stems Gallery, Brussels, Belgium. Faux has also exhibited in many group shows, including Sim Smith, London, UK; Althius Hofland, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Lyles & King, New York, NY, USA; and Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden. Faux's paintings have been written about in Cultured Magazine, Artsy, i-D, Vice, Surface Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Modern Painters and Hyperallergic, among others. [1] Sarah Faux, Artist Statement, 2022 [2] Faux, S. Reconstructing feminine bodies with internal logic, Artshard, January 2021
