SARAH YUSTER

Sarah Yuster is a painter known for her urban landscapes and insightful portraits

ARTIST'S STATEMENT: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 -…

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:

Peripheral Vision Nov. 2024 - Dec. 2024  Art Lab Gallery, Snug Harbor Cultural Center

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:

You Wont Believe the Everyday Moments Captured...

“Pepsi. It’s a New York Thing”

 “Digging Into Native Soil

 “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