Sara Suppan

Region: Midwest

Website: http://sarasuppan.com

City / State: Minneapolis, MN

 My recent paintings are the product of a pandemic year: oscillation between humor, solitude, irony, and ennui; messages sent out from a single-occupancy apartment; a reckoning with the new abundance of time. I’m thinking about each painting as a hand wave—distanced and friendly, light and lonely.

Disparate subject matter is held together by the tension between a playful attitude and serious rendering. The works manifest many hours spent detailing mittens stitch-by-stitch, animal prints spot-by-spot, and forest floor rock-by rock. Some motifs have emerged: gloved hands, socked feet, houseplants, camping, smiley faces, but the strongest undercurrents in these paintings are their gesture and their slight otherness.