- The figures in my paintings are rooted in the present, and yet I consider them both past forebearers and future ancestors.
Sara Baur Harding is a Swiss-American painter based in Los Angeles and graduated from The Art Center College of Design. Notably, she realized the first site specific installation at the Los Angeles Union Station and was supported by the National Endowment and Rockefeller Foundation. She also took part in one of the earliest women shows in NYC in the nineties along with Meret Oppenheim and Louise Bourgeois. She has also lived and worked in New York City, Milan and London.
As the daughter of an anthropologist Baur Harding focuses on representations of people embodying important knowledge that is passed on and holds cultures together. The repeated theme of coastlines can be seen as a borderline for transformation. Other transformational themes include connection to nature, technology, and ritual.
There is generally a sense of observing the observer. The imagery is less about social commentary than relating to the human spirit. Baur Harding choses palettes such as pinks and yellows to achieve a quality of luminescence. And overlays drips as a way of stitching colors together spontaneously. She endeavors to have the light source appear to come from within the paintings, referencing both Turner’s seascapes and James Turrell’s skylights.
sara baur harding I cv
BIOGRAPHY
b. 1966. Bergen Norway
lives and works in Topanga, CA
EDUCATION
1994 – 1995 Art Center College of Design, Masters Program
1986 – 1989 Art Center College of Design, BFA, with distinction
1985
Santa Barbara City College European Abroad Program
1984 - 1985 University of California, San Diego, Visual Arts
GRANTS, INSTALLATIONS AND EXHIBITIONS
2018 Solo, ‘ In The Beginning There Was Only The Ocean’; Studio Show Topanga
2017 Group Show; Topanga Gallery Show prize awarded by Chris Burden
2017 Solo “Gone Out Of Experience’, Studio Show, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica
2006 Solo show ‘Threads Branches and Other Interpolators’. Coldwell Banker of Topanga
1995 Graduate Show, honoring Colin Gardner,; California State University, Los Angeles
1995 Group show “The Big Night”, The Bradbury Building, Los Angeles,
1993 Women’s Group show, ‘Breaching Containment’, The Gallery Three Zero (including Louise Bourgeois and Meret Oppenheim)
1989 Public site specific Installation ‘The Los Angeles Union Station Project’ administered in part by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts through LACE
1989 ‘The Green House Installation’. Pasadena Ca. Exterior slide projections of Manet’s Ophelia on brick structure, flour, bowls of oil, plastic and drapery
COLLECTORS
Verena Duecher-Baer, Zurich, Switzerland, FREAK SERIES(seven paintings); Karl Weber, Zurich, Switzerland, BRANCHES painting; Chris Baer, London, complete ASSEMBLAGE SERIES; Ursula Hodler New York/Switzerland, MOTHER & CHILD; Patricia & Thomas Von Ah, Zurich Switzerland, ZOMBIE PORTRAITS; Ann Marie & Scott Powers, Santa Barbara, Ca, BERBER RUG PAINTING; Susan Matus & Michael Irby, BERBER RUG painting, Topanga CA.; Nicole & Randall Einhorn, BERBER RUG painting, Topanga Ca.; Carry & Chopper Bernet ,Topanga Ca, BERBER RUG PAINTING; Anne Gabbert, Topanga, Ca. BERBER RUG PAINTING; Catherine Grasso, Topanga Ca., COUCH CULTURE PILLOW; Dale Franzen, Pacific Palisades Ca, BERBER RUG PAINTING, COLOR FIELD PAINTING; Prof. Manuel Carlos, PORTRAIT OF MANUEL, Watsonville, Ca.; Kasoum, PORTRAIT OF KASOUM, Sri Aurobindo Ashram , Pondicherry India