A Colorful Conversation with Sarah Blaustein

Photo Credit : Cayce Clifford

Sarah Blaustein (b. 1982, San Francisco East Bay, CA). Blaustein is a visual artist living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Recent solo exhibitions include Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Institute of Contemporary Art San José, San José, CA; private showing and salon at PACE Gallery, Palo Alto, CA; and Hesse Flatow Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been included in group shows at Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, NY; and Hesse Flatow East Gallery, Amagansett, NY. In January 2023, art historian Alexander Nemerov (Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA) spoke about her work at a private exhibition, The Call and Salon, hosted by Jennifer Stockman (New York, NY). In September 2023, Blaustein showed her work at a private salon, To Radiate, hosted by Berggruen Gallery at Casa Cipriani (New York, NY), where art historian Laura D. Corey (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY), spoke about her work and Helen Hatch (MOMA, New York, NY) moderated the talk. In June and December 2023, she painted at the American Academy of Rome through their Artist and Scholars Program (Rome, Italy). Blaustein has exhibited her work at The Armory Show (New York, NY), Art Basel Miami Beach (Miami, FL), Dallas Art Fair (Dallas, TX), and Fog Design + Art (San Francisco, CA). In 2023, she exhibited her work in Trodden Path a group show at Hesse Flatow East (Amagansett, NY) and The Big Picture a group show at Night Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). In 2024, she showed her work in Abstract Perspectives and California Gold group shows at the Berggruen Gallery (San Francisco, CA).

I had the pleasure of asking Sarah about the most vital item in her studio, her current exhibition, Overture, what type of paint she prefers, and so much more.

UZOMAH: Your color choices and strokes are gentle yet bold. Can you describe your color choices when you are creating?

SARAH: My color choices are inspired by my everyday life, what I’m witnessing, and what I’ve experienced. I remember certain moments and colors and bring them back to the studio with me. 

I mix my palette ahead of time and then work intuitively. I react to the colors I’ve already applied to the canvas, working in a collaborative push-and-pull as the composition develops across the picture plane. By deciding on my palette ahead of time, I’m working with a generative constraint. 

Painting is about problem-solving: creating new aesthetic problems, then figuring out how to address them. 

U: Your most recent exhibition, Overture, is a captivating journey at Night Gallery in Los Angeles. It showcases new paintings that capture the vibrant interplay of acrylic on wet canvas. Can you discuss the process of curating an exhibition, selecting each painting, and weaving a cohesive theme? 

S: Curating the show alongside Night Gallery owner Davida Nemeroff and her team, I thought about the sense of movement within each work and relationships between colors. It’s also about different surfaces: I worked on a couple of different types of canvas, which hold water differently, and included two works on paper. 

What unites the paintings is how alive they are and how wet they feel long after they’ve dried. The eye moves around each painting in a different way. Each work engages the viewer both at a distance and at the intimate, close-up scale. It’s exciting to discover connections among the pieces and find compositions that all work together.

Altogether, the works reverberate in a way that evokes the title of the show: It’s akin to an overture, or an introductory piece of music that produces a powerful sense of movement. 

Sarah Blaustein Press Play R-4, 2023 ink and acrylic on canvas 66 x 69 in (167.6 x 175.2 cm) (SBS017) Courtesy of Nik Massey and Night Gallery.

U: Why do you believe art is a vital thread in the fabric of society? Can you share how you discuss art's significance and impact on our lives?

S: Art has immense power and the capacity to create change. It makes life worth living. Life without art or beauty is hard to imagine. 

I want my work to act as a tool, allowing viewers to be more aware of themselves and their own humanity – to feel more alive – without dictating their viewing experience. 

U: With each painting, there is a suggestion of feminine forms and budding flowers. Can you describe your artistic intent? 

S: I’m trying to paint powerful feelings I can’t see, that I can only feel, so they’re coming from within me, as a woman. I often think about accessing core life-force energies in the here-and-now, which includes beauty and eroticism. 

I think of water as my main medium, and also as a fundamental source of life, creation, birth, and there’s a wetness and juiciness in the work, which furthers these connections. For example, it makes sense for a viewer to think about the body when they see these paintings, as I’m thinking about water while I make them. 

I’m trying to channel core human energies including the erotic. So I understand why people see those forms, but it’s not my intention to depict a flower or a feminine form. Instead, I’m interested in what someone feels when they see them and whether it makes them feel more alive. 

Sarah Blaustein Press Play IT-9, 2023 ink and acrylic on paper 41 x 50 in (104.1 x 127 cm) (SBS043)Courtesy of Nik Massey and Night Gallery.

U: How has being born and raised in San Francisco East Bay, CA, influenced your artistic vision? What specific elements of the Bay do you find most inspiring, and how do they manifest in your work? 

S: I grew up in a very green area of the East Bay. I had animals—bunnies and a bird— growing up and spent a lot of time outside. My neighbors had old, grafted walnut trees where I wandered and played in the grass among the mustard flowers. 

I was the youngest of three children, left to my imagination, and these animals, and the outdoors. I had this childhood in the dirt, playing all the time. This was a huge gift my parents gave me, this freedom with time and space, which helped me develop an artistic language of my own. 

Moments from my childhood influenced my practice. I work in a converted garage, looking out towards the redwood trees. It’s quiet and green, and things change all year. It’s very open-air. I have a very particular method for working, which includes best practices. I do the same thing every morning. I recite a mantra I’ve had since I was sixteen. I go outside, have coffee, and take a quiet moment before I begin painting. I feel very fortunate to work in a climate that allows for all this. 

When I think about the Bay and my upbringing, I think about smells, sculptures made in mud, and wet winters. The light is different here than in New York, where I used to live. I feel very fortunate to have this light in my studio. 

Sarah Blaustein Press Play L-6, 2024 ink and acrylic on canvas 69 x 69 in (175.3 x 175.3 cm) (SBS029) Courtesy of Nik Massey and Night Gallery.

U: In 2023, you were the Visiting Artist at the American Academy of Rome, where you created some of the paintings in Overture. What was it like creating outside of your comfort zone?  How did you adapt? Did it help you be more creative? Why are programs like being a visiting artist important? 

S: In 2023, I went to Rome twice to work. Each visit was very different, though I was extremely productive and happy with the work both times. The Academy sets up incredible space and time to work. They really take care of you. You’re able to focus on your practice. 

Last winter, there was a lot of violence in the world, and my newsfeed was full of terrible stories. I’d lived in Italy when I was younger, and it had felt like a safe place. That wasn’t true anymore. My nervous system was not balanced, and I was trying to get a handle on these world events. Apart from the news, a family member had also tried to commit suicide, and it became deeply upsetting to be abroad. I was spending so much time in the studio, at all hours of the day. I was exhausted, and something unlocked. The work was pouring out of me in a different way. I approached things differently, being outside my comfort zone. 

Art historian Alex Nemerov and I had a studio visit before my second trip, and he spoke of the idea of cracking the ice. The idea is that if you step on a crack on a frozen pond, it can feel dangerous. But as an artist, you shouldn’t be worried: You should insistently crack the ice to discover deeper and previously unseen elements of your work. I thought about that a lot. 

U: Can you discuss what brushes you use and how they affect your creation? Which type of paint do you prefer to use, oil or acrylic? What makes it important to you and why? 

S: I work mainly with acrylic, ink, and water, with water as my main medium. I don’t work with oils. I like fast-drying, permanent materials because they add an element of pressure. When I’m working, I have to be very deliberate about every mark I’m making. I focus on immediate moments, and I’m ever present. I use all kinds of brushes: house painters' brushes, boar bristle brushes, acrylic brushes, sponges, and rags. I’m absorbing almost as much as I put down, reacting, and in constant conversation with the work. 

Sarah Blaustein Skip R-22, 2023 ink and acrylic on canvas 95 x 78 in (241.3 x 198.1 cm) (SBS030) Courtesy of Nik Massey and Night Gallery.

U: Can you discuss a typical day in the studio for you? What is the most vital thing in your studio? 

S: I won’t enter the studio until I’m ready to work. As I mentioned, I have a series of rituals to prepare myself. I go to the garden, check my email, drink coffee, wake up, say my mantra, and put on special shoes. Then I’m in my studio by 9. I’m always playing music, which is an important part of my practice. I listen to different playlists all week, rotating about eight songs, listening to them on repeat. This helps with muscle memory, thinking about cadence and pressure. My music is very controlled. There’s no water in my studio—the water source is a minute away. I fill vessels and jugs, and it’s a gift to take a moment to get the water, to rethink my next move. I have all different brushes, and I work flat and around the canvas. Sometimes, I have multiple canvases going at once, depending on the size. I like to move back and forth between pieces, really connecting to the work and the marks. 

A while back, a friend suggested that I create an altar to bring positive vibes and energy into the studio. It’s been an amazing practice: When I arrive, I gift something to the altar, intended for a few people in my life who have passed away. Sometimes, it’s a flower from the garden or a piece of candy. I feel that these people are watching over me, giving me energy. They’re my grandparents, my closest friend from high school. That’s the most important part of my studio. I’m always developing new “best practices” for how I work. And I love acknowledging the people in my life who have been important to me. They are ever-present.

For more information about Sarah’s art please visit her site here. She can also be found on Instagram here. Her latest exhibition, Overture, is featured in the magazine and can be found here.