SARAH KREPP

….VROOM!

November 13, 2021 - January 15, 2022

OS Projects is honored to present Chicago artist Sarah Krepp in a solo exhibition featuring her singular mixed media paintings and sculptures. The exhibit opens November 13, 2021 and continues through January 15, 2022. An artist reception takes place Saturday, November 13 from 1 to 3 pm. Masks are required at the reception regardless of vaccination status.

Sarah Krepp, a preeminent visual artist, educator and curator, has exploded the boundaries of painting during her decades-long experimentation with materials and processes.  She is an astute observer of conditions on the ground, deftly weaving incisive social and environmental commentary into her ambitious works.

Combining scraps of blown-out tires, tar, lace and handwritten text fragments transcribed from radio news programs, Krepp’s works set up an interplay between the brute force of the road and fragile domesticity. The abundantly massed surfaces, with their explosions and extrusions of black conglomerates, serve as metaphors for the threat of engulfment—in particular, ecological disaster.  Blown-out tires, littered along roadsides and stacked into piles at shredding facilities, epitomize an American landscape built upon oil, commerce and the enduring fantasy of the open road.  By incorporating the detritus of this landscape, Krepp’s works foreground the indulgences of contemporary society and the tendency to downplay or dismiss consequences.

On a formal level, Krepp’s layered yet lyrical assemblages of everyday materials play with and puncture the borders between painting, sculpture, drawing and choreography.  Her visually complex works create an energetic impact that prioritizes poetic dynamics before the content is understood.  Inhabiting an ambiguous space with both curiosity and confidence, Krepp’s works speak to our struggle to understand the fractured world while reaffirming the vigor and exuberance of our lived experiences.

About the Artist

Sarah Krepp has shown her interdisciplinary art in museums and galleries nationally and internationally.  Her works are in museum, corporate and private collections throughout North America including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois State Museum, Brauer Museum of Art, the corporate headquarters for GE and McDonald’s, and BMO Harris Bank, among others.

Krepp has been awarded many research grants and residencies—most recently, a residency at Cill Rialaig Arts Centre in County Kerry, Ireland.  She has also received travel grants to conduct research in Scotland, England, Ireland and Germany.

With an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BS from Skidmore College, Krepp is Professor Emeritus of the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was Chair of the Painting Program. In 2002, Krepp founded DIALOGUE CHICAGO, an interdisciplinary critique/seminar for visual artists. DIALOGUE CHICAGO, which is ongoing, includes artists who work in a variety of media, from painting and installation to performance and time arts. It has developed into an innovative artistic community in the Chicago region.

Installation Images

When viewing these images on a mobile device, press the dot in the lower right corner of the screen to see information about each work. On a desktop/laptop, hover your mouse over the image.