Brent has exhibited widely including recent solo exhibitions The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA, and The Mayor’s Gallery in Boston, MA. Recent group shows include “New England Now” at the Shelburne Art Museum, Shelburne, VT and “Still No More” at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH. Reviews of her numerous exhibitions have been featured in Art New England Magazine, The Boston Globe, Sculpture Magazine, and other publications. Her work is in the permanent collections of Danforth Art Museum, Liquitex Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, and in numerous private collections.
Born in Hadley, NY, Sarah Meyers Brent received her BS from Skidmore College, her Post-Baccalaurate in Studio Art from Brandeis University, and her MFA in painting from the University of New Hampshire. The artist maintains a studio at Waltham Mills in Waltham, MA.
Artist Statement
My painting, sculpture and installation take the craziness of motherhood and environmental destruction to create something beautiful.
In my large paintings, I am drawn to the wilt and decay of dried flowers and am constantly amazed at how they are able to maintain such beauty. The twisted, gnarled mass of floral vegetation mimics what I think about while painting. Smaller works, that I created directly from the landscape during the pandemic, record the unsettled beauty during this time.
My paintings represent gardens that are strong and layered, able to grow, come apart, and then come together again during the process. I’m drawn to the physicality of paint. I work to preserve the rawness of the canvas and my original drawing by combining areas of thick and thin. In some pieces washes fluidly explode out from the center of the canvas with globs of “paint flowers” growing on top. In others, it appears as if the painting itself is dripping and falling down. In all my works the compositions are simultaneously blooming and breaking apart.
Although I record my observations of dried flowers, I also leave a lot to chance. At times I place paintings on the floor, allowing the paint to be thin and fluid. Other times I work on them upside down, seeking out abstract form. I go back and forth between my desire to make the floral imagery more life-like and then to deconstruct it.
My sculptures and installations use all of the debris from my house and studio, including old kids’ clothes, paint globs, packing peanuts, rags, pieces of old projects, and gloves. There is a beautiful richness to these materials, which are otherwise considered trash. I want the work to feel alive: simultaneously growing and decaying.
