Sarah Haviland

Artist Bio                                                            Sarah Haviland is a sculptor and installation artist whose recent work focuses on cross-cultural human-bird imagery and the environment. She was awarded a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship for creative research in Taiwan in 2018-2019. Her abstract-figurative sculptures and public art installations have been exhibited widely in galleries, parks, museums, healthcare, and educational settings, including commissions at the Flatiron Prow Art Space in Manhattan; Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ; Pratt Sculpture Park in Brooklyn; NYU Langone Medical Center; and the National Marine Museum in Taiwan. Other awards include a Creativity Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, fellowships from the New York and New Jersey State Arts Councils, and residencies at Sculpture Space, Skowhegan, and Yaddo. Sarah Haviland was born in Kansas City, Kansas, grew up in New Jersey, and earned a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Hunter College. She teaches at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. Artist Statement Images of real birds combine with mythical figures in my recent sculptures and installations. These artworks reflect human-avian connections in cultures around the globe as well as contemporary societal and environmental issues. Using simple materials and flights of fancy, they call attention to wonderment as well as to climate change, migration of birds and people, and our own psychic condition. My sculptures often strike a balance between abstract form and human identity. Rooted in gesture, these simplified figures embody layers of distilled emotion and archetypal presence. They acknowledge contradictions, combining strength and subtlety, movement and stability, ancient and contemporary outlooks. Sometimes referencing historical images of women, my works also investigate habitation, place, and the environment. The sculptures range from intimate to large scale, created with a range of materials such as wire mesh, steel, resin, bronze, bamboo, and mixed media.