The Spring 2025 Graduate Art guest lecture series, organized by Jack Bankowsky

Sara Cwynar

This event is free & open to the public. RSVP’s are not required.

See the full Spring 2025 Seminar schedule here.

Sara Cwynar (b. 1985, Vancouver, BC) lives and works in New York. Anchored in the artist’s obsessive archiving of popular images, Cwynar’s work deploys photography (and more recently film) in installations that interrogate the powerful role images play in our everyday lives. How are images created—and why? How do they work, proliferate, endure, or disappear? Cwynar draws on material, both contemporary and dated, to explore the seductive ruses of the commercial image and the power dynamics they serve and reproduce.

Cwynar received an MFA from Yale University and a BDes from York University in Toronto. Her most recent exhibition, Baby Blue Benzo, an immersive installation at David Zwirner’s 52 Walker, New York, NY, anticipates her forthcoming solo, Sara Cwynar, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA. Past projects include, S/S 23, Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2023); Apple Red, Grass Green, Sky Blue, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Source, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada (2021); Sara Cwynar: Down at the Arcade, a commission for the Performa Biennial, New York (2021); and appearances in group shows including, L’Image Volée, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2016); and Greater New York, The Museum of Modern Art PS1, New York, NY (2015/16). Cwynar’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa, Canada, among others.

Image credits: Installation shot of Baby Blue Benzo, courtesy of the artist.

Support for this series is generously provided by the following: Jack Shear, Brenda R. Potter, Brendan Dugan, Lisson Gallery, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Sprüth Magers, BLUM, Hannah Hoffman, Alan Hergott, and David Kordansky

ArtCenter's Graduate Art program is based on intensive studio practice and rigorous academic coursework. The program is distinguished by its low faculty-to-student ratio that provides students with the attention and feedback they need to refine and achieve their artistic goals. Faculty and students are artists working in all genres—film, video, photography, painting, sculpture, performance and installation. A significant number of alumni have achieved national and international acclaim and often return to share their insights and expertise as visiting faculty and guest lecturers.