Sarah Crowner binds painting and performance in her vibrant stitched canvases
Hong Kong’s Simon Lee Gallery debuts new works by the Brooklyn-based artist in ‘Paintings for the Stage’
![Abstract bright coloured paintings in white walled gallery](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PyypAHbCbwYTbeeeEg4rsL-415-80.jpg)
Painting and performance art share a curious – if not always immediately apparent – kinship. Pollock gave rise to the term ‘action painting’ (by way of critic Harold Rosenberg), Rauschenberg toured with and produced sets for choreographer Merce Cunningham’s dance company, while Klein used nude female models as his paintbrush. Cue artist Sarah Crowner, the New York-based painter who, too, has seamlessly sewn together both in a new series of stitched canvases for her first solo exhibition in Asia, on view at Simon Lee Gallery in Hong Kong.
Crowner’s vivid paintings tempt impulsive comparisons with Matisse and Ellsworth Kelly, but it’s the backs of her canvases that reveal she’s telling an altogether different story to them. The artist works directly on the floor of her Brooklyn studio, composing painted swatches of canvas and intuitively fastening them together with an industrial Juki sewing machine before stretching them onto a frame – ‘that’s the when the painting gets to the point where I can understand what it is.’ Crowner will stretch a painting ‘six or seven times’, altering its components until it’s deemed ‘successful’.
Untitled, 2019, by Sarah Crowner, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery
‘Paintings for the Stage’ continues the artist’s architectural and scenographic interventions, recently explored in the American Ballet Theatre Company’s Garden Blue production. ‘The experience of working on that scale, and working with performers, dancers, musicians and choreographer was life-changing for me. It made me start thinking about my painting practice in a new way,’ explains Crowner, who designed costumes as well as a vast backdrop for Jessica Lang’s ballet.
‘I thought what if I could take that [theatre] experience and somehow translate or at least bring one of those elements into the gallery and see what it does,’ says the artist. ‘For example, what would it be like to hang a painting on backdrop and how it would affect your reading of a painting?’ To wit, Crowner enlisted local scenic painter and theatre set designer Pink Lam to realise a wall painting for her Hong Kong exhibition, casting her largest canvas adrift in an aqueous azure mural.
Her latest body of work feels bolder, energised by her recent foray in the theatre. ‘I started placing different colours together that I normally wouldn’t… There’s a vibration and dimensionality that happens when you place these certain colours together and I was interested in playing up those experiences to the eye,’ she adds. ‘I’m interested in pushing that optical experience more and more.’ Encore!
Leaves and Shadows, Lilac Background, 2019, by Sarah Crowner, with a wall painting by Pink Lam. Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery
Almost Kissing Wings, 2019, by Sarah Crowner, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery
Installation view of Sarah Crowner’s ‘Painting for a Stage’ at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong. Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery
Rotating Wings, 2019, by Sarah Crowner, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery
INFORMATION
‘Paintings for the Stage’ is on view from 15 February – 20 March. For more information, visit the Simon Lee Gallery website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhood
Tschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
By Millen Brown-Ewens Published
-
Artist Peggy Kuiper’s impactful figurative works explore her memories and emotional landscape with striking visual intensity
Peggy Kuiper presents ‘The Conversation That Never Took Place’ at Reflex in Amsterdam, featuring over 25 new works (until 13 July)
By Simon Chilvers Published
-
Don’t miss: Hayv Kahraman intertwines colonialism and botany in London
Artist Hayv Kahraman draws parallels between colonial botany and her experiences as an Iraqi refugee transplanted into Europe, at Pilar Corrias in London
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The ageing female body and the cult of youth: Joan Semmel in Belgium
Joan Semmel’s ‘An Other View’ is currently on show at Xavier Hufkens, Belgium, reimagining the female nude
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Guglielmo Castelli considers fragility and violence with painting series in Venice
Guglielmo Castelli’s exhibition ‘Improving Songs for Anxious Children’ at Palazzetto Tito, Venice, explores childhood as the genesis of discovery
By Sofia Hallström Published
-
Art Basel Hong Kong 2024: what to see
Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 sees the fair back bigger and better than ever. Navigate the highlights with our guide
By Lauren Ho Published
-
‘Accordion Fields’ at Lisson Gallery unites painters inspired by London
‘Accordian Fields’ at Lisson Gallery is a group show looking at painting linked to London
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Cui Jie revisits past utopian architectures in her retro-futuristic cityscapes
Cui Jie responds to the ‘Cosmos Cinema’ theme of the Shanghai Biennale 2023
By Finn Blythe Published