Sarah Swift

Sarah Swift was born and raised in Exeter, Rhode Island, and moved to Brooklyn, NY to attend the Pratt Institute of Art and Design for Painting and Printmaking. Graduating in 2015 with her BFA, she exhibited work in shows throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, and won the Best of Show award at the 2016 Conception Events-TriBeCa Arts Exhibition. Swift has curated several shows in Rhode Island and NYC, and acted as Guest Juror for the Attleborro Museum of the Arts Members Exhibition in 2017. She has been featured in Artscope Magazine, So Rhode Island Magazine, RI-GO Local Live, Root TV, and in several Local papers. She now resides in Exeter, Rhode Island, with her studio in the tower at the Shady Lea Mill artist studios. From 2017 - 2021 she worked as Gallery Director of Hera Gallery in Wakefield RI, and remains an Artist member.

Artist Statement:

“I was raised by two marine biologists, living on the rural coast of Rhode Island. I was fascinated with the organic world, as it became the primary influence surrounding my early years of learning. I remember towing big nets to catch sea plankton that we would later watch and draw for hours with the help of monstrous microscopes. I vividly recall the joy I found in simple structures like cracked ice, dead flower pods, and veins in leaves I would peel apart to examine. Back then it was just “play”, but that obsession has developed into a studio practiced rooted in exploration, experimentation, and “life cycles” of repurposed material.

The idea of creating a sustainably conscious studio practice entered my mind in art school when supplies were expensive, and I had reusable material EVERYWHERE. I started favoring the processes of finding fabric or wood or plastic and giving it all a new purpose. I decided to put more effort into using material that was not only around me, but that was actually in my way, that I intended to dispose of; garbage. I begin hording plastic bags to be woven into tapestries and into loom pieces. I shredded old ripped clothing and unraveled old sweaters. All material I receive goes through a process, whether it is painted, cut, collaged, or shredded; it is always somehow pieced back together.

My process systematically mimics the ongoing cycle of build-up and breakdown found in natural phenomena. On the most basic level I’m investigating life and death-and perhaps rebirth. On a more complex level, I think of changes of season, habits and patterns of daily living, relationships, even the economy and stock market. I love this idea that everything in a constant state of flux, ebbing and flowing and reacting to everything around it.