Sarah Fripon

Drawing on a sizeable archive of digital images, screenshots, stock photos, advertisements and iconic images, quoted, combined and elaborated through free concatenations of visual associations, Sarah Fripon’s pictorial practice reflects the paradoxes of the contemporary world in times of crisis, where society constantly feeds on deceptive capitalist super-structures which provide no means to any end. The idea of the “quotation” can also be found in the tridimensional space where the artist works for her projects. Fripon indeed takes into consideration the architectural peculiarities of the sites, reflecting on how structural specificities can become part of the setting or providing hints for the creation of sculptural elements.

Created mainly using soft colours, the paintings appear blurred and faded, like out-of-focus snapshots of fleeting moments, vanishing memories and lost places. Mysterious and at times far-fetched, her scenarios blend with ordinary and familiar situations, generating an effect of visual misalignment, further emphasised by the use of the airbrush – the stylistic hallmark of her entire production. The fleeting and undefined outlines of the subjects portrayed seem to invite spectators to distance themselves from them in order to fully grasp their clarity, as well as to come to terms with reality, questioning the truthfulness of the images we consume on a daily basis.

Sarah Fripon (b. 1989, Zeitz, Germany) lives and works in Vienna. She holds a BA in Fashion Design and an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Solo exhibitions include: Harkawik Gallery, New York (2023); Pilot, Vienna (2022) and Bau 2-6, Vienna (2019). Her work has been exhibited in group shows at Vin Vin, Vienna (2023); Harkawik, Los Angeles (2022); Fünfzigzwanzig, Salzburg (2021); Palais Liechtenstein, Vienna (2020) and Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck (2019), among others. Her works may be found in the collection of the Baden State Museum, Karlsruhe, the Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, and the Collection of the Vienna Museum. Fripon is currently a Fellowship Awardee of the Bank Austria Studios 2022–24.