Sarah Oppenheimer
Born1972
Austin, Texas, United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationYale University, Brown University
Known forInstallation art, sculpture
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters
WebsiteSarah Oppenheimer
Sarah Oppenheimer, 33-D, Aluminum, glass and architecture, Total dimensions variable. Installation view: Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland, 2014.

Sarah Oppenheimer (born 1972, in Austin, Texas)[1] is a New York City-based artist whose projects explore the articulations and experience of built space.[2][3][4] Her work involves precise transformations of architecture that disrupt, subvert or shuffle visitors' visual and bodily experience.[5][6][7] Artforum critic Jeffrey Kastner wrote that Oppenheimer's artworks "typically induce a certain kind of vaguely vertiginous, almost giddy uncertainty" that over time turns "indeterminacies of apprehension into epistemological uncertainties, epistemic puzzlement into ontological perplexity."[7]

Oppenheimer's work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Mudam (Luxembourg),[8] Wexner Center for the Arts,[9] Mass MoCA,[10] Kunstmuseum Thun (Switzerland),[11] and Baltimore Museum of Art.[2] She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship,[12] the Rome Prize,[13] and awards from the Joan Mitchell, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Anonymous Was A Woman foundations, among others.[14][15][16]

Work and critical reception

Oppenheimer modifies areas of transition such as thresholds, hallways, windows and doors in order to reveal and reshape spatial hierarchies of observation and influence.[17][3][7] Critics distinguish her work by its exploration of the performative possibilities of architecture.[18][9] Each project acts as a medium of experiential exchange, leading visitors to reconsider perceptions of orientation, structure and the stability of built space.[3][19] Writers relate Oppenheimer's strategies to those of environmental psychology, situationist psychogeography, and to the work of artists such as Lygia Clark, Robert Irwin, Hans Haacke and Andrea Fraser.[20][5][3][21]

Nomenclature

The titles of Oppenheimer’s works are generated from a numerical typology.[7][22] Each digit in a title tracks transactions and flow between spatial zones, and together, form a key to the orientation of the work within the built environment. Writer Alexander Galloway likens Oppenheimer’s typology to bitwise operations commonly used in computer architecture and binary arithmetic.[4]

Projects

In early exhibitions at The Drawing Center (2002) and Queens Museum (2004), Oppenheimer explored the interdependence of spatial navigation and interior architecture.[23][24] Mutable wall panels were reconfigured in the museum space while navigational research was conducted on test subjects monitored under controlled conditions (e.g., Hallway, 2002).[25][26] In the latter 2000s, Oppenheimer reconfigured the boundaries between exhibition spaces, installing apertures that displaced views within and outside galleries (e.g., Saint Louis Art Museum, 2008; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 2009).[27][28] 610-3356 (Mattress Factory, 2008) employed a roughly seven-foot-long hole in museum's fourth floor which tunneled down and out a third-floor window to enable a view outside the building.[6][22][29][30]

Sarah Oppenheimer, 610-3356, Plywood and existing architecture, fourth floor opening dimensions: 84" × 16", Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, 2008.

In D-33 (P.P.O.W., 2012) and 33-D (Kunsthaus Baselland, 2014), Oppenheimer modified the boundary between three contiguous rooms, inserting a pair of slanting openings at the spaces' corners.[3][31][7][32] The openings united, separated and altered the interconnected environments, offering shifting views and light conditions. Edged with bands of dark, matte aluminum cladding, they recalled the drawn lines and shapes of hard-edge geometric abstraction.[3][7][32] The New York Times's Roberta Smith described D-33 as "a new variation on the empty-gallery-as-art," which combined graphic punch and Caligari-esque Expressionism to torque space "in ways both apparent and mysterious."[31] W-120301 (Baltimore Museum of Art, 2012) was Oppenheimer's first permanent work in a museum.[6][19] It involved three precise, four-sided cutouts—in the ceiling of a second-floor gallery, in the wall of a third-floor gallery, and in the wall of an adjacent rotunda—that formed a Y-like shape opening into a volume embedded within the floors and walls.[2][33] She arranged the aperture to create unexpected "shortcut" views of spaces located within a few feet of one another, but experientially remote.[2][6][4]

Oppenheimer extended her engagement with passageways and apertures to include movable and manually activated partitions utilizing the concept of the "switch"—devices or junctures that modulate or articulate movement and change, such as open/closed, reflection/transparency, continuity/separation.[8][5][18] S-399390 (Mudam, 2016) featured two inhabitable glass passageways that repeatedly changed position in the museum's Grand Hall according to an orchestrated scheme, modifying visitor movement, sightlines and perceptions of the space.[8]

Sarah Oppenheimer, S-337473, Aluminum, steel, glass and existing architecture, Total dimensions variable. Installation view: Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, 2017.

During a two-year residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Oppenheimer developed a human-powered apparatus, the biased-axis rotational frame mounting system, for which she received a U.S. patent.[4][34][35][36] It was used in three locations: S-281913 (Perez Art Museum Miami, 2016), S-337473 (Wexner Center for the Arts, 2017), and S-334473 (Mass MoCA, 2019).[17][4][37][38] Each work featured two open glass volumes suspended in midair between thick steel tubes anchored to the floor and ceiling. Viewers set the volumes in slow rotating motion around a diagonal axis. The movement initiated a sequence of unexpected sightlines, thresholds, pathways and choreographies between artwork, viewer and built environment.[10][37][17][18] Laurent Stalder wrote that Oppenheimer's later work "fundamentally challenges the conception of architecture as a solid and durable construction, proposing instead a conception of architecture as a controlled and controllable environment."[18]

N-01 (Kunstmuseum Thun, 2020) featured a dynamic exhibition system of mechanically interconnected thresholds which when set in motion changed the position of one another.[39][11] Describing N-01, Soyoung Yoon wrote, "Each component of the work links to the other, communicates with each other, and the challenge is to see ourselves as also a component within this series of linkages—a complex, apparently-disjunctive series, which we learn to see as a whole."[39]

Awards and collections

Oppenheimer has been awarded fellowships from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation (2007),[12] American Academy in Rome (2010–1),[13] and New York Foundation for the Arts (2016, 2010, 2006).[40][41] She has also received awards from Anonymous was a Woman (2013),[16] the Joan Mitchell Foundation (2011),[14] Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation (2009),[42] and American Academy of Arts and Letters (2007), among others.[43] Her work belongs to the public art collections of Mudam,[8] Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego,[28] Mattress Factory,[30] Baltimore Museum of Art,[44] and Brown University.[45]

References

  1. ↑ van Ryzin Jeanne Claire. "UT Landmarks to unveil a new public art commission by Sarah Oppenheimer," Sightlines, May 14, 2021. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Rose, Julian. "Mirror Travel: Julian Rose On Sarah Oppenheimer’s W-120301," Artforum, April 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hirsch, Faye. "Sarah Oppenheimer, P.P.O.W.," Art in America, December 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Galloway, Alexander. "Sarah Oppenheimer," BOMB. Fall 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 Rose, Julian. "Sarah Oppenheimer: S-281913," Artforum, July 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Crow, Kelly. "A Baltimore Museum Becomes the Art Object," Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kastner, Jeffrey. "Sarah Oppenheimer, P.P.O.W.," Artforum. November 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 4 MUDAM. Sarah Oppenheimer, Collection. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  9. 1 2 Galloway, Alexander. "Our Best Machines Are Made of Sunshine," Sarah Oppenheimer: S-337473, Columbus, OH: Wexner Center for the Arts, 2017.
  10. 1 2 Campanini, Cristiana. "Oppenheimer’s Dancing Sculptures," Arbitare, April 1, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  11. 1 2 Kunstmuseum Thun. Sarah Oppenheimer, N-01, Exhibitions. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  12. 1 2 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Sarah Oppenheimer, Fellows. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  13. 1 2 American Academy in Rome. Sarah Oppenheimer, Prize Fellows. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  14. 1 2 Joan Mitchell Foundation. Sarah Oppenheimer, Supported Artists. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  15. ↑ Artforum. "Tiffany Foundation Announces $600,000 in Awards," February 4, 2010. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  16. 1 2 Anonymous was a Woman. Previous Recipients. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  17. 1 2 3 Rose, Julian. "Sarah Oppenheimer: Perez Art Museum," Artforum, February 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Stalder, Laurent. "A Switch," Sarah Oppenheimer: S-337473, Columbus, OH: Wexner Center for the Arts, 2017.
  19. 1 2 Green, Tyler. "Baltimore Commissions Sarah Oppenheimer," artinfo, May 18, 2011.
  20. ↑ Clark; Robin. "Automatic Cities: The Architectural Imaginary in Contemporary Art," Automatic Cities: The Architectural Imaginary in Contemporary Art, Robin Clark and Giuliana Bruno, La Jolla, CA: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 2009. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  21. ↑ Malick, Courtney. "Sarah Oppenheimer’s Unique Brand of Institutional Friction at PAMM," Miami Rail, Fall 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  22. 1 2 Amado, Miguel. "Inner and Outer Space," Artforum, September 12, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  23. ↑ The Drawing Center. Drawing Papers 30: Sarah Oppenheimer and Clarina Bezzola, 2002. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  24. ↑ The New York Times. "Art Listings," April 14, 2003, p. E8. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  25. ↑ Meredith, Michael. "Sarah Oppenheimer," Artforum, September 2002. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  26. ↑ Johnson, Ken. "'Impact': New Mural Projects,'" The New York Times, July 30, 2004. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  27. ↑ Gay, Malcolm. "Currents 102: Sarah Oppenheimer," Riverfront Times, April 16, 2008. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  28. 1 2 Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Sarah Oppenheimer, Artists. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  29. ↑ Mondello, Bob. "Find Unforgettable Art In A Most Unlikely Place: A Pittsburgh Mattress Factory," NPR, July 21, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  30. 1 2 Mattress Factory. 610-3356, Sarah Oppenheimer, Works. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  31. 1 2 Smith, Roberta. "Sarah Oppenheimer’s D-33 at P.P.O.W.," The New York Times, October 12, 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  32. 1 2 Raskin, Laura. "Sarah Oppenheimer," Architectural Record, August 2014, p 104. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  33. ↑ Ober, Cara. "Sarah Oppenheimer at the Baltimore Museum of Art," Art Papers, March/April 2013. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  34. ↑ Artforum. "Wexner Center Announces Artist Residency Awardees for 2015–16," July 8, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  35. ↑ Oppenheimer, Sarah. Biased-Axis Rotational Frame Mounting System. U.S. Patent 10,139,046 B2, November 27, 2018. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  36. ↑ Oppenheimer, Sarah. "Pivot and Slide," Movement Research Performance Journal, #54: Spatial Practice, 2020, p. 74–5.
  37. 1 2 Mass MoCA. Sarah Oppenheimer, S-334473. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  38. ↑ Heinrich, Will. "Don’t Miss These Art Shows and Events This Fall," The New York Times, September 12, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  39. 1 2 Yoon, Soyoung. "Buffer Zone," N-01, Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2020.
  40. ↑ New York Foundation for the Arts. "NYFA Announces Recipients and Finalists for 2016 Artists’ Fellowship Program," July 8, 2016. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  41. ↑ New York Foundation for the Arts. "Names You Know," Alumni. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  42. ↑ The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Sarah Oppenheimer, Award Winners, 2009. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  43. ↑ Artforum. "American Academy of Arts and Letters, Art Cologne Announce Awards," March 23, 2007. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  44. ↑ Baltimore Museum of Art. P-010100, Sarah Oppenheimer, Objects. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  45. ↑ Brown University. Sarah Oppenheimer, P-131317 (2011), Public Art. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
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