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Sarah Pater is a painter based in Philadelphia.  Her work blurs the aesthetics of boredom and attention with office-leisure-domestic design, daily experiences, and painting conventions.  Through a diaristic approach that mirrors everyday perceptual experiences, Pater’s practice explores longing, vision, female experience, and time.  Her paintings are composites of observed and invented images, echoing the visual experience of life with omnipresent screens that compel simultaneous views and projections.  They serve as analogies for contemporary ways of looking and seeing, scaled for private contemplation.  

Pater has been included in recent solo and group exhibitions at Yi Gallery (New York); CHART (New York); Pablo's Birthday (New York); Lighthouse Works (Fishers Island, NY); Helen J Gallery (Los Angeles); Peep Projects (Philadelphia); and Taymour Grahne Projects (London). Her work has been featured in New American Paintings and Bat City Review and reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, Two Coats of Paint, Whitehot Magazine, and elsewhere. Pater has been awarded residencies at the Lighthouse Works, the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, the Sam & Adele Golden Foundation, and the Ora Lerman Charitable Trust. She received an M.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design and a B.F.A. from Boston University.

︎ sarah.r.pater@gmail.com


b. Wilmington, Delaware.
Lives and works in Philadelphia.

Education

2015

Rhode Island School of Design, M.F.A., Painting 

2009

Boston University, B.F.A., Painting 


Solo & Two-Person Exhibitions

2024 

Here, Before and After Me, Xingze Li & Sarah Pater, Yi Gallery – Brooklyn

2022 

on the circular track of days, Lighthouse Works – Fishers Island

2020

Everything might spill, Spite Haus – Philadelphia

2017

Anyoffice, University of the Arts – Philadelphia

2015

Nothing / Will Have Taken Place / but the Place, Sarah Pater and Lauren Comito (curated by Hilary Doyle & Reid Hitt), Projekt 722 – Brooklyn


Selected Group Exhibitions

2025

Inside, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery — Philadelphia
The Anxious or the Serene Still Life (curated by Zeuxis), Ceres Gallery — New York

2023

Pablo’s Birthday at Untitled Art Fair — Miami

Bellyache (curated by Shona McAndrew), CHART – New York
Time (organized by Ryan Steadman), Pablo’s Birthday – New York

2022

Books and Things (curated by Cameron Masters), Helen J Gallery – Los Angeles
Light Accumulation (curated by Ali Osborn), Pulp – Holyoke MA
Not Always What They Seem, Peep Projects – Philadelphia
Surface Tension (curated by Lauren Whearty), Ortega y Gasset – Brooklyn
Still Going (curated by 106 Green), Taymour Grahne Projects Notting Hill – London

2021

Spring (organized by Kris Benedict), West Chester University – West Chester PA
Fitting out the outfitters, Accordion Studios – Providence

2019

Unseen (curated by Akili Tommasino), Collar Works – Troy NY
Be. Long., Dutoit Gallery – Dayton OH
THERE IS NO BAND (organized by A.J. Rombach), Distillery Gallery – Boston

2018

Double Meeting, Orgy Park – Brooklyn
A Few Conversations Between Women, Boston University – Boston
Made in Paint, Sam & Adele Golden Gallery – New Berlin NY 

2016

106 Green Presents, Brennan & Griffin – New York
A Body Has No Center, Tiger Strikes Asteroid – Philadelphia
Brick Moon, FJORD – Philadelphia
Dirty Particles (curated by Ni Hao), 18th Street Arts Center – Santa Monica 

2015

Sub-Scheme, Western Exhibitions – Chicago
RISD MFA Painting (essay), Kathryn Markel Fine Arts – New York
Fever Dream, RISD Museum – Providence 
RISD Graduate Thesis Show, Convention Center – Providence

2014

UFO Hunters, Sol Koffler Gallery – Providence
Not Tight, Memorial Hall Gallery – Providence
The Rainbow Room, 111 Front Street – Brooklyn
New Talent, New York Design Center – New York

2013

Pool Rules, Sarah Pater, Natessa Amin, & Sean Gerstley, FJORD – Philadelphia

2012

In Celebration of the Barnes, CSA Gallery – Philadelphia 
Considering the Provisional, FJORD – Philadelphia 


Bibliography

2015

Hyperallergic: Highlights from the RISD MFA Painting Exhibition in Chelsea

2013

The Nicola Midnight St. Claire: Form Review - Pool Rules at FJORD


Residencies

2021
The Lighthouse Works Fellowship, Fishers Island, NY
Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, Granville, NY
2020/21
Soaring Gardens Residency, Ora Lerman Charitable Trust, Laceyville, PA
2018
Lacawac Sanctuary & Biological Field Station Artist Residency, Lake Ariel, PA
2017
The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts Residency, New Berlin, NY

Curatorial Projects

2020

Slow Burn, West Chester University – West Chester PA (curated with David Aipperspach)

2015

Paper Chasers, Memorial Hall Gallery – Providence
(curated with Tony Bragg, Irmak Canevi, Andy Giannakakis, Suzy Gonzalez, Michael R. Leon, Jon Merritt, Fernando Pezzino, Whitney Oldenburg, & Katie Darby-Slater)

2013

Ivory Tower, FJORD – Philadelphia (curated with Kaitlynd O'Doherty)

︎ Photos by Neighboring States.

Copyright Sarah Pater.