Sara Frantz American

Emerging from the long days of the pandemic shelter-in-place, Sara’s latest paintings depict a “new American landscape.” They are a complex interplay between the traditional ode to nature and a contemporary narrative of pop culture, politics and the presence of technology in our everyday lives. “My paintings are a wink that hint at undercurrents of dialogue just below the surface. They are built upon transitory surfaces of sand and snow; things are buried underneath that cannot be seen,” she says. Her compositions of academically painted trees, skies and sea are sprinkled with clues that inform us of deeper meanings. The topography is loaded with messages about the way our lives have shifted with the inundation of technology, digital images and social media. “The work considers how technology simultaneously extends and amputates people’s senses.” Sara’s artistic practice goes back-and-forth between analog and digital applications, overlaying images in photoshop before digitizing painterly surfaces with her brush. “It is normal now to see digital images of nature. The American landscape is littered with evidence of pop culture and political commentary. My work is an amalgamation of all of these forces which have become part of our collective fabric.”

Sara Frantz is a visual artist and Professor of Studio Art at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA. She grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and earned her BS in Painting from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and her MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. Her drawings and paintings explore the false barriers that create more imagined than real distances between two points of view. Scenes of hope and want, but also powerlessness, depicted in flat color and faux digital paint marks. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows, as well as internationally recognized art fairs. In addition, she has attended various artist residencies including Cow House Studios in Ireland, Vermont Studio Center, and NES Residency in Iceland. Frantz currently splits her time between Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo.