Sara Frantz

Sara Frantz’ work is heavily influenced by travel, specifically the shift one sees along a route. Her work explores the similar themes of environment, consumption, space and forced decorative imitation of nature in a controlled revelation of landscape. Frantz fragments and re-configures the built environment through the prism of various styles and techniques.  Flat color-field painting abuts dense, overtly physical marks and seamless gradients of graphite.  The effect is one of near-collage, with the parsing of techniques held in tension with the unifying structure of landscape imagery: sky, horizon, and ground.  By doing this, Frantz enters conversations about once-exalted Modernist pictorial styles, entangling them with local, familiar, and banal conditions.  In effect, “high” art and “low” architecture co-mingle to form an inherently fractured, yet still-beautiful, image of both our contemporary environment and our means of picturing it. 

Frantz received her MFA in Painting from the University of Texas at Austin. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Muriel Guepin Gallery, New York City, NY; Sala Diaz, San Antonio, TX; H.J. Miossi Art Gallery, San Lucas, CA; and David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX. Sara Frantz was selected for the NES Artist Residency in Skagastrond, Iceland, in 2008. She is an Assistant Professor at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Sara Frantz; Scene from the Library, 2015; graphite, gouache and pastel on paper; 40 x 26 in.
Sara Frantz; Cantilever 3, 2015; graphite and gouache on paper; 26 x 40 in.
Sara Frantz; Barber Shop, 2015; graphite, gouache on paper; 30 x 22.5 in.
Sara Frantz; Cantilever 2, 2015; graphite, gouache on paper; 26 x 40 in.
Sara Frantz; Modernist Pool, 2015; graphite, gouache and pastel on paper; 9 x 12,5 in.
Sara Frantz; Outside Milan, 2015; graphite, gouache and spray paint on paper; 30 x 26 in.
Sara Frantz; Burger Boy, 2014; graphite and gouache on paper; 40 x 26 in
Sara Frantz; Working Girl, 2013; graphite and gouache on paper; 32 x 24 in.