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- The figures in my paintings are rooted in the present, and yet I consider them both past forebearers and future ancestors. 

Sara Baur Harding (b. 1966, Bergen, Norway) is a Swiss-American painter based in Los Angeles and a graduate of The Art Center College of Design.

Rooted in her background as the daughter of an anthropologist, Baur Harding’s work explores knowledge, memory, and cultural continuity. Using luminous palettes of pinks and yellows, she layers drips and textures to create vibrational surfaces that evoke deep emotional resonance.

Her series I Am the Measurement of My Mother’s Heart translates personal and ancestral connections into visual form, using textiles, fibers, and painted data to symbolize the bonds between generations. The Screaming Ladies captures women in protest—visibly vocal yet embodying the silence imposed on them by society. Coastal imagery recurs in In the Beginning There Was Only the Ocean, where figures exist in liminal spaces, evoking migration, transformation, and the fragility of existence.

Baur Harding’s practice spans themes of connection—between nature, technology, and ritual—while her work has been exhibited internationally. She created the first site-specific installation at Los Angeles Union Station, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation, and was featured in an early women-led exhibition in New York alongside Meret Oppenheim and Louise Bourgeois. She has lived and worked in New York City, Milan, and London.

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

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