Sarah Cain

Sarah Cain was born in 1979 and lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Cain received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2001 from The San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, CA. She then received a Masters of Fine Arts degree in 2006 from the University of California at Berkeley, CA. In 2006, Cain attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Cain’s practice is a multivalent exploration of color, materiality and variable scale. Working from the intimate, handheld scale of her $talisman series (made directly on dollar bills) to monumental public works in stained glass and painted architectural pieces Cain brings an equalizing dynamism and attention to detail to each format.

The composition of Sarah Cain’s work is often simple; bold blocks of color, geometric forms, surfaces broken into quadrants, focused areas of dense detail. These formal characteristics are balanced by bursts and splashes of unconstrained color, found objects such as feathers and bells, and an adept use of negative space. In the artist’s stained glass work, brightly hued panes, additionally embedded with faceted glass “jewel” formations, allows for a dramatic expansion of her color drenched practice as light is refracted through them.

Cain has had solo exhibitions at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME; the Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY; The Momentary (at Crystal Bridges Museum of Art) Bentonville, AR; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA; Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Los Angeles, CA; CAM Raleigh, Raleigh, NC; and the San Francisco Art Commission, San Francisco, CA. Additionally, Cain has participated in numerous institutional group exhibitions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; among others. Cain’s work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Perez Art Museum Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; UBS Art Collection; and the Zabludowicz Collection, London. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, Town & Country, Los Angeles Times, Artforum, Architectural Digest, and Art in America.