VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Gallery 1724 presents the exhibition Sarah G. Sharp: Family Crests for the Disenfranchised, on view May 8 through June 19. Opening reception will be Saturday, May 8, 8-10pm.

This is Brooklyn-based artist Sarah G. Sharp's first Houston show! "Family Crests for the Disenfranchised", imagines heraldic imagery for the outsider. She uses domestic materials like contact paper, linoleum, aluminum tape and salt, which she transforms into images and objects that are familiar, funny and fantastical.

From Sarah:
Whether by force or by choice, whether on the outside of a large family or a small town, there is a symbiotic relationship between the dominant culture and the edge-dwellers of any group. Every group of insiders needs a group of “outsiders” in order to define itself. Somewhere in the space between acceptance and rejection lies a complicated liminality where dogmatic group think, seductive/mythic language, and hidden motivations can be revealed. I make sculpture, drawings and video that explore the construction and expression of individual belief systems, often scripted by a larger “community.”

My recent work draws on vernacular architecture, analog communication structures, and the inspirational landscape imagery to address the magical thinking required to maintain strict belief structures in the face of contradiction and improbability. A current series, Family Crests for the Disenfranchised, imagines heraldic imagery for outsider. I often use domestic materials like contact paper, linoleum, aluminum tape and salt, which I transform into images and objects that are familiar, funny and fantastical.

To see more of Sarah's artwork, please visit:
http://www.sarahgsharp.net

Also on view at Gallery 1724:  Lane Hagood: Old Book Smell.