Sara Frantz

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Sara Frantz (b. 1981, Wheaton, IL) is heavily influenced by travel and movement, specifically the shift one sees along a route. Her work indulges the familiar 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. The effect is one of collage, with the parsing of techniques held in tension with the unifying structure of landscape imagery: sky, horizon, and ground. In doing this, Frantz enters conversations about once-exalted Modernist pictorial styles, entangling them with local, familiar, and banal conditions. In effect, elements within her paintings co-mingle to form an inherently fractured, yet beautiful, image of both our contemporary environment and our means of envisioning it. Her new works incorporate flowers and plants that she foraged while walking around San Luis Obispo.

Frantz received her MFA in Painting from the University of Texas at Austin and her BA from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Recent solo exhibitions include Pamala Walsh Gallery, Palo Alto, CA; Left Field Gallery, Los Osos, CA; Sala Diaz, San Antonio, TX; H.J. Miossi Art Gallery, Cuesta College, San Lucas, CA. Frantz has been an artist in residence at the NES Artist Residency in Skagastrond, Iceland; Cow House Studios in Ireland; and the Vermont Studio Center. She is a Professor of Studio Art and Department Chair at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo.

Sara Frantz; Virtual Interactions between the Sun and the Moon, 2024; 12 x 9 x 2 inches
Sara Frantz; Hummingbird Hawk Moths and a Jacaranda Tree, 2024; 12 x 9 x 2 inches
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.