Sara Anstis

Anstis uses sensuous soft pastels and paint to build fantasy worlds at a remove from heteronormative patriarchy, yet strikingly transformative of it. The predominant concepts that Anstis’s works explore are “subjectivity, Eros, Thanatos, humour, personal mythologies, misunderstandings and (mis)anthropomorphisms.” These themes are woven together in her paintings alongside a plethora of otherworldly elements - strange creatures, surreal landscapes and plants - by which her feminine figures lay claim to desire, for better or for worse.

Sara Anstis (b. 1991) lives and works in London. She received her BFA in Studio Art and Sociology at Concordia University (Montreal, CA) in 2013 and her MFA in Fine Art from Valand Academy (Gothenburg, SE) in 2016. In 2018, she completed the Drawing Year Postgraduate Programme at the Royal Drawing School (London, UK).

She has received grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (CA), Jerwood Arts (UK), and the Anna-Lisa Thomson foundation (SE) amongst others. Her recent body of work was developed over six months for the exhibition Pencil of Rays at Galerie Fabian Lang, Zürich (May 2021). The previous year she was at two seminal residencies: El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), USA (July - September 2019) awarded by the Royal Drawing School, London and at Palazzo Monti x The Great Women Artists, Brescia, Italy (November - December 2019).

Her recent exhibitions include Discrete, Nevven gallery, Gothenburg, SE (solo); Canons, Galerie Deroullion, Paris, France (group show); Just As I Am, 1969 gallery, NY, USA (group show); Monster/Beauty: An Exploration of the Female/Femme Gaze, Marcelle Joseph, London, UK (group show); I want to feel alive again, Lyles&King, New York, US (group show); Comings and Goings, Sara Anstis and Neal Tait, Fabian Lang, Zurich, CH; Transatlantico, Palazzo Monti x Mana Contemporary, NJ, USA (group show); The Self, The Work, The World , Fabian Lang gallery, (Zurich, Switzerland), 2019 (group show); Slip spill, 650mAh (Hove and Brighton, UK), 2019 (group show); Gestures of Comfort, Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran (Montreal, CA), 2019 (group show); BIG PAINTING, Patrick Parrish Gallery (NYC, USA), 2019 (group show); Den Tänkande Handen (The Thinking Hand), the Royal Palace – Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities (Stockholm, Sweden), 2019 (group show).