Sarah Emily Porter

Sarah studied History at Durham University (2005-2008) before later attending Chelsea College of Arts, London to complete a Graduate Diploma in Fine Art in 2016. Just two years after graduation she has won the Broomhill National Sculpture Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Signature Art Prize and Jackson’s Open Painting Prize.
Her practice explores colour and the historical context of painting. By gaining an in-depth understanding of the chemical properties of paint, she has been able to challenge the rules of painting to create work that is a collaboration between her own desires and the unpredictable tendencies of her materials. 
Inspired by architecture, interior design and geometry, she creates digital sketches to map carefully considered mathematical systems and orders which form a framework for the production of her paintings. 
With modernist ideas at the forefront of her work, she has created her own innovative painting tools which pour and manipulate paint on tilting wooden structures. By using unconventional painting processes she creates a dialogue between art and science as the paint ebbs and flows in a single linear stroke under the force of gravity.
In works such as ‘Hera’, the idea of authorship is challenged as the paint cascades from one tilting canvas to another in sequences, allowing the paintings to paint themselves. This process removes the artist from the gesture and emotion of painting, highlighting instead the complexity of colour, the intricacies of the materials, and the process of application.
Exhibitions include: ‘Summer Show’, Walthamstow Village Window Gallery (2018), National Sculpture Prize, Broomhill Sculpture Gardens, North Devon (2018/2019), ‘Artrooms Roma’, Church Palace Hotel, Rome (2018), ‘The Other Art Fair’, Victoria House, London (2018), ‘Three100’ No Format Gallery, Deptford (2017), ‘Chance & happenstance’, room. South London (2017), ‘CHROMA: Green Issue’, Art Hub Gallery, Deptford (2017), ‘FLOCK’, GX Gallery, London (2016), ‘Interim’, The Cookhouse Gallery, London (2016). Awards include: The Broomhill National Sculpture Prize (2018), The Jackson Open Painting Prize (2018), The Annex Collection Acquisition Award (2016). Residencies include: Griffin Gallery Project Residency (May 2018), NLCS Jeju Resident Artist (June 2019).