SARAH YUSTER
Sarah Yuster is a painter known for her urban landscapes and insightful portraits
photograph of Yuster taken by Michael McWeeney using 1955 Speed Graphic with 1940 Ektar lens used for WWII reconnaissance
Armed with the tenet that small, ordinary truths often illuminate larger fields, I paint with an eye towards the tension and beauty that can occur when man, technology and the natural world convene at random points. These images - plain, familiar, observed from common angles, are my visually transposed moments of willed isolation and affection for an inherent sense of belonging.
We all share the common denominator of unadorned minutes - our minds idle or wander while we perform menial tasks or wait at a stoplight, eyes barely focusing on the immediately available. These peripheral sights, unremarkable subjects, are quiet, visible anchors to our environment, neighborhoods and each other. I care to paint them because they have the subdued strength of an emotional shorthand, like a glance between siblings in the presence of a parent.notable clientele/collections:
Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery - Nobel laureate Saul Bellow
National Air & Space Museum- Neil DeGrasse Tyson – astrophysicist
University of Alabama - Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer prize winning biologist, Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard
Yale University - Russell Trust Association(Skull and Bones Society)
Bangkok Royal Family Compound, Thailand - large scale triptych for N. Songkhla
New Balance Armory Track - Ted Corbitt, Olympian, creator of the NYC Marathon
Tegla Loroupe Peace Academy – Tegla Loroupe, Olympic runner Kenya
She‘s been commissioned by the Wall Street Journal, NY State Legislature, City University of NY and the NYC Department of Education among others.
Yuster’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of American Art, Nat’l Academy of Design, Biggs Museum of American Art, NYC galleries, and hangs in institutions and corporate headquarters throughout the metropolitan area. Her artwork is displayed beyond the US border in the UK, Continental Europe, Japan, Thailand and Kenya.
She’s also a documentary filmmaker focusing on social themes such as bias issues, environmental stewardship and immigration.
Commitment to painting began at the HS of Art & Design. Yuster earned her fine arts degree at SVA, attended the Greek Language Center for five years and the Italian Cultural Institute for two years of language study...just because.
“When humanity, technology and the natural world convene”, Yuster’s landscapes embrace the vortex. Her particular ability to convey atmosphere, air and subtle light, results in paintings that nail a moment, flash a glimpse or hint at a mystery.
Sprawling, lush and sentimental treatment is lavished on both likely and unlikely subjects, while others are spare, offhand remarks - and there’s an occasional elbow jab of dry humor. A viewer will likely connect somewhere along this spectrum of compelling images”
EXHIBITIONS • AWARDS • REVIEWS • COLLECTIONS • EDUCATION
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Biophiles - A New Generation, Oct. 2022 - Jan. 2023 Biddle House Museum Conference House Park
Close to Home/Staying Home - gallery show canceled due to pandemic 2021
hosted online at SarahYuster.com and ARTLab SI’s website.
Native Soil – (6 month major retrospective) – Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art 2018
External Forces – Lenape Gallery, NYC Parks NYC (2015-2016
25 Year Mini-Retrospective – Murray Berman Gallery at The Bernikow JCC, NYC 2013/14
Streetscapes and Land Surveys Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, 2008
Habitats, Biophiles and Beasts, Staten Island Museum 2006 -2007
Firefighters Commemorative, Civil Courthouse SI, NY 2002
RH Tugs, SI,NY An Unmistakable Staten Island Accent 2000 - 2001
Distance Runners Hall of Fame, Utica, NY 1999 - 2001
On the Road New York Road Runners Club, NYC, NY One Woman Show 1999
Incidence - Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art 1998
Roads Taken, One Woman Show, Kade Gallery [Wagner College], NY 1997
After The Leni Lenape - Portraits of An Island and Its People, Borough Hall, 1989
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
Vunerable Landscapes Staten Island Museum at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, April - December 2023
Arc of Twenty Years (co-curator) Noble Maritime Museum
Native Ensemble: Artists Chronicle Staten Island’s Natural Spaces • Lenape Gallery, NYC Parks Department 2015 *curator
Juried Landscape Exhibition/ Video Installation “Twenty-Nine Years” - Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover DE 2014
High Art - selection from a Decade of New Acquisitions - Smithsonian’s Air& Space Museum, Washington DC 2013
New York Marathon Exhibit; Waitz and Corbitt honored • National Track Hall of Fame. NY Armory Track 2012
Artists Respond to September 11 • National Lighthouse Museum, NYC 2011 *curator
Islandscapes, From the Ferry to the Fairyland” Wagner Gallery SI,NY 2000
National Academy of Design, NY,NY 2000
Sarah Rentschler Gallery, Hudson, NY 1999
SOHO 20, “Salon show”, NY, NY 1998
New Acquisitions, (portrait of Saul Bellow) Nat’l Portrait Gallery-Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C 1997
Aspects of Reality - Five Artists, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, SI, NY 1993)
National Academy of Design, NY, NY 1992
National Academy of Design, NY, NY 1990
Helio Gallery, group show, NY, NY 1989
NY State Legislative Recognition as Woman in History [Painting] 1989
Main Hall Gallery, Snug Harbor SI, NY 1989 Best Portrait - Figure Painting, “Contrapusto, Chiaroscuro, Tropicana” Tony Moore - Guggenheim Museum, juror
Borough Hall, SI, NY, Portrait of Borough President Ralph Lamberti installed 1987
SI Federation Show, Newhouse Gallery, Snug Harbor SI, NY 1986 Best in Show “East From the Kill Van Kull”, NY Times art critic William Zimmer, juror
SELECTED AWARDS:
2022 NYSCA Grant for Biophiles - A New Generation
2021: selected as one of 15 New Yorkers by Pepsi’s “It’s a New York Thing”, a $10,000 award based on “creative spirit and community connection”
2020 DCA Grant for Close to Home series
2020 NYSCA ABC Regrant (Small Truths, my arts & literacy program for public school students @ PS20
2018 DCA Grant for Native Soil
2018 NYSCA ABC Regrant
Between 2009 - 2017 four awards for the NYSCA ABC Regrant (Small Truths, my arts and literacy program for public school students
2015 NYSCA External Forces – paintings of non visual artists in situ outdoors (musicians, dancers poets, writers)
2014 NYC DCA Small Truths – a documentary film based on writings and artwork
2014 NYSCA Original Work Grant - Serendipity Chronicled, with Footnotes
2004 NYC Council on the Arts Encore Award for Biophiles, pt 1
2002 NYFA Encore Award for the Firefighter's Commemorative
1999 NYSCA Original Work Grant - Incidence and Homescapes
1989 NYC Council on the Arts – After the Leni Lenape – portraits of an island and its’ people
SELECTED REVIEWS:
“Pepsi. It’s a New York Thing”
“Painting A Fuller Picture” NYC Track Publications
“Staten Island Painter Speaks About Commemorating 9/11” Epoch Times (International)
"Top 10 reasons to visit NYC in October, November 2006 Travelocity Guide (Habitats, Biophiles and Beasts)
“The Biophiles” Brooklyn Bay News ( 10/06)
“Eco-DoGooders” Staten Island Advance, (10/8/07)
“Painting Post 9/11”., Staten Island Advance, (9/1/02)
“Exhibition Off and Running”, New York Daily News (3/12/99)
“Framed (S. Bellow) Before His Time”, Boston Globe (6/13/97)
“For He’s A Jolly Good Bellow”, Washington Post (10/29/95)
“National Gallery Buys Island Artist’s Portrait”, SI Advance (1/24/97)
“Yuster Paints Runners and Runs”, SI Advance (10/29/95)
“Artist Captures Ordinary Life”, Brooklyn Bay News (4/18/88)
“Outposts of the Art Galleries”,{Cover Photo} Artspeak Gallery Guide,NY(9/1/87)
“Sarah Yuster in One Woman Show”, SI Advance (8/1/86)
“Snug Harbor Features Women’s Art”, NY Daily News (3/21/82)
PUBLISHED - BOOK/ARTICLES:
Native Soil – Staten Island Homescapes 120 page hardcover art book | Zographia Press 2018
Painting Bellow, The Forward 5 /28/2015
Camera in Hand – Staten Island Advance 5/2012
MUSEUM AND INSTITUTION COLLECTIONS:
National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Yale University- Russell Trust Foundation (Skull and Bones Society)
Harvard University, Cambridge MA
Bangkok Royal Compound, Thailand
New York Armory Track , NYC
NYC Dept. of Parks
International Center For the Disabled, NY
Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, Kenya
United Nations Global Compact, NYC
City University of NY
Hospital for Special Surgery HSS, NYC
New York Road Runners Club, NY
St. Vincents Medical Center, SI, NY
University of NJ Medical Center, NJ
Noel Ryan, County Cork Manager, Ireland
County Wexford Borough Hall, Ireland
Michael Petrides Educational Complex, NY
DOE, NYC Public Schools - multiple locations (6)
Staten Island Museum, NYC
Staten Island Children’s Museum, NYC
EDUCATION:
Greek Language Center, New York, NY (1985-1990) (1999 - 2002 )
Italian Cultural Institute, New York, NY (1985-1986)
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY (BFA 1980)
High School of Art and Design, New York, NY