Sarah Lederman Biography

arah Lederman's practice is an exploration into self, fantasy and desires. It is influenced by her childhood fantasies; fairy tales, castles and the loss of innocence and she is fascinated by the dichotomy between fantasies and genuine desires.

Lederman uses paint to conjure the illusion of skin and containment in the body, building up cells and filth to allude to the surface of the skin and making the disgusting and repulsive become beautiful. The containable becomes uncontainable. The body becomes fluid, unfixed.

The work delves deeper into this idea of containment; examining the feeling that it is something awkward and difficult and confronting the desire to be something that the body won’t let itself be. These paintings are concerned with how we are able to stay in our own body and how the skin keeps us in; how the containment of soul as well as body, intensifies that sense of awkwardness.

Sarah Lederman has been precociously successful since her graduation from Chelsea College of Art & Design, London in 2008. Lederman has exhibited widely since graduating, and in 2009 was awarded the Catlin Art Prize.