Sarah Cain: Enter the Center

Sarah Cain is an artist who works on canvases of all sizes, modifying them by cutting and braiding, painting on all sides, and installing the canvas with the back of the painting facing the viewer. Her process involves altering and disfiguring a composition until the original image is no longer recognizable, and her work is a challenge to the patriarchal hierarchies of painting. Sarah Cain: Enter the Center features new writings and previously unpublished photographs and documentation of dozens of artworks.

Format: Hardback
Length: 132 pages
Publication date: 28 November 2022
Publisher: Distributed Art Publishers

Los Angeles-based artist Sarah Cain, born in 1979, creates vibrant paintings and installations that span a wide range of canvases, often modifying them through cutting, braiding, painting on all sides, and installing the canvas with the back facing the viewer. Her artistic practice extends beyond traditional canvases, encompassing interior and exterior walls, floors, furniture, and even dollar bills. Cain's creative process involves a meticulous exploration of composition, often leading to the alteration and disfigurement of her initial ideas until the original image becomes unrecognizable. This process is deeply rooted in the history of painting and feminist art practices, as she incorporates found objects into her work, challenging the traditional hierarchies within the art world.

Cain's paintings are characterized by their speed, brashness, and unconventional compositions. Her use of splashes, spray-painted scribbles, and tacky accouterments adds a sense of absurdity to her works, undermining the traditional gravity associated with large-scale painting. Jonathan Griffin, in his review of Cain's work in the New York Times, noted that "almost everything about Cain's paintings—their speed, their brashness, their noodling compositions, their splashes and spray-painted scribbles, their tacky accouterments, their sense of absurdity—seems to undermine the gravitas that large-scale painting traditionally projects."

Sarah Cain: Enter the Center is a comprehensive publication that showcases new writings and previously unpublished photographs and documentation of dozens of artworks from the last decade. The book focuses on Cain's exuberant and unique paintings and installations, providing a deeper understanding of her artistic journey. Through her vibrant compositions and bold use of materials, Cain challenges the traditional boundaries of painting and invites viewers to explore new perspectives on art and creativity.

Weight: 839g
Dimension: 284 x 206 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781636810140