Sarah Wertzberger

Heat Wave

September 10 – October 23

HOLDING Contemporary presents Heat Wave, featuring new textile works by Sarah Wertzberger. Heat Wave opens on September 10 and runs through October 23, 2021. Gallery hours are noon – 5 PM, Friday – Saturday. Visit our website to schedule an appointment. Safety and social distancing requirements will still be in place.

Multidisciplinary artist Sarah Wertzberger's new series of brilliantly-colored artworks reveal illusory imagery, trompe l'oeil patterning, and psychedelic vibes. Exploring the relationship between craft, technology, and design, Wertzberger’s hand-woven textiles delve into spatial perception and the surreal, while embracing the foundational structure of weaving.

Wertzberger blends traditional hand weaving techniques with computer-aided weaving and incorporates shaped canvases and heat transfer processes. Labyrinthian patterns ground the works in bold departures from the preciousness of process and material. In Heat Wave, Wertzberger’s shapes emerge from frenzied fields of color and retreat back into the picture plane with surprising dimensionality.

See works in the show here.

Sarah Wertzberger’s art practice began with painting and incorporates elements of craft, technology, and fine art as a mediated process of creating woven objects reminiscent of paintings. She explores ideas of play, color interaction, and the tensions that exist at the intersections of art, design, craft, and technology. Wertzberger received her MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited at Field Projects (New York, NY), The Oregon College of Art and Craft (Portland, OR), The Design Center (New York, NY), and has been a resident at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Deer Isle, ME), The Weaving Mill (Chicago, IL), and AZ WEST — Encampment Residency (Joshua Tree, CA). Wertzberger lives and works in Portland, OR.

HOLDING Contemporary presents exhibitions and programs by visual artists across disciplines. Through our curatorial vision and alternative community-driven business model we seek to challenge the economic and social privilege of the art world.