Sarah Bird (b. 1984, Concord, MA) is an Idaho and Oregon based painter. Drawing on techniques from a background in realism but referencing the warped perspectives of Flemish Primitive paintings, Bird weaves landscape and still life together to create self-determined worlds. Layering and re-arranging motifs from the history of Western oil painting, she uses an old language to depict her contemporary life, vividly described personal objects set against deep horizons. Making reference to the surreal twists of Bosch, van Eyck and other Flemish Primitives, these paintings “weird” the landscape as we now experience the surreal weirding that is the end of the Holocene.

The recipient of a 2017 Idaho Arts Grant, her paintings have been shown in New York, Los Angeles, and Block Island, Rhode Island.

SOLO SHOWS

2022 Tiny Fruits, Art Center East, La Grande, OR

2015 Spring Street Gallery Block Island, RI

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023 Membranes, Garage Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe, Incline Village, NV

2022 Felt/Sense, Garage Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe, Incline Village, NV

2019 Florilegeum, Eleventh Street Arts New York, NY

2018 Idaho Art Fellow Touring Exhibition, Idaho

2018 Jessie Edwards Gallery, Block Island, RI

2018 Spring, Collins Galleries, Orleans, MA Spring Show

2017 5 and Under, Arcadia Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2017 Wood River Valley Studio Tour show, Ketchum, ID

2016 Small Works Show, Eleventh Street Arts, New York, NY

2016  Wood River Valley Studio Tour Show, Ketchum, ID

2016  Freedman memorial airport juried show, Hailey, ID

2015 A Fresh Palette, benefit show for Wellness in the Schools, New York, NY

2015 presentation at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR

2014 Inaugural Group Show, Eleventh Street Arts, New York, NY

2013 Brown University Alumni Show, Brown University Club, New York, NY

2013 Albright Gallery, Concord MA

2012 Grand Central Academy Salon, Grand Central Academy, New York, NY 2012

2010 Mono Lake Committee and Gallery, Lee Vining, CA

PUBLICATIONS

New American Painting, MFA Issue, Spring, 2023

Portia de Rossi Tells Us All the Details of General Public, Her Innovative New Art Company, Architectural Digest May 10, 2018

GRANTS + AWARDS

Artist in Residence, City of Rocks National Reserve, ID 2022

Fellow, Idaho Commission on the Arts, 2018

Wood River Valley Studio Tour, Board of Directors 2017 - 2019

Hudson River Fellowship, Grand Central Atelier, 2011 and 2012

EDUCATION

2023 MFA Interdisciplinary Arts, Sierra Nevada University/University of Nevada, Reno

2014 Core Program Graduate, Grand Central Atelier, New York, NY

2007 BA, Public Policy and American Institutions, Brown University, Providence, RI