I believe that art, by its very nature, challenges us to recognize and question our surroundings, experiences and choices. For me, the creation of art incorporates an awareness of the senses and a critical investigation of materials, space and cultural context. It forces me to ask more questions than I can answer and necessitates that I acknowledge complexity in the world around me. I make and teach from this perspective.
Biography
Sarah Lindley resides in Plainwell, Michigan, a short walk away from the Kalamazoo River Superfund site. She maintains a studio in the Park Trades Center, the former Saniwax wax paper factory, in Kalamazoo. Her current practice is focused on the domestic landscape—communities, industry and environmental trauma. This work grew out of her earlier projects based on domestic spaces. Research interests and sources for that work included genre painting, the history of porcelain, the all-white image in art (and monochromatic work in general) and the relationship between public and private space.
She received her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and her MFA from the University of Washington. She was an Arts-Industry Resident in Kohler, Wisconsin in 2003, 2010 and 2012, and completed a residency at the European Ceramic Work Center in the Netherlands in 2017. Her creative work and teaching endeavors have been supported by numerous grants and awards, including the GLCA New Directions Initiative, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (via Kalamazoo College), the Michigan Campus Compact and the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation. She is currently the Arcus Social Justice Professor of Art at Kalamazoo College, where she has been teaching sculpture and ceramics since 2001.
More Information
Press release and catalog for City Sine Cera at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN
Sine Cera
Learn more about the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership through the Praxis online journal.
ACSJL
Mirage (writing cabinet) on long-term display in Chipstone's Neo at the Milwaukee Art Museum
Neo at MAM
"A 19th Century Paper Mill Transformed Into a Space for Art" by Janet Tyson
Hyperallergic
Global Crossroads grant—interdisciplinary collaboration with Aquatic Ecologist, Siobhan Fennessy
GlCA
Short video about Mirage and the exhibition Remains— Contemporary Artists and the Material Past
Remains
"From Inside Paper Mill..." Interview and story by Robbie Feinberg, Arts and More, WMUK
Public Radio
2017 Residency at the European Work Center in the Netherlands.