Born 1984 in Columbia, South Carolina. Lives and works in Brooklyn, USA.
The paintings of Sarah Slappey contort expectations of the female nude in ways that eroticize the distasteful and brutalize the sensual. Sexual puns and bathroom jokes are squeezed into compositions of fleshy surreality that bulge and squirt within the picture frame. Feminine symbols and phallic objects from tampons to pearls, cigarettes and lipstick are reframed as kinky props of evolved bodies condensed to sexual features. In doing so, Slappey seeks to topple a history of male dominated female depiction, taking control of an invented body of imagery, while translating its ability to remain provocative and sensuous.
Her recent solo shows include 'Sacrifices' at Bernheim, Zurich (2022), 'Self Care' at Sargent’s Daughters, New York (2021), 'Tenderizer' at Bernheim, Zurich (2020), 'Power Play' at Sargent’s Daughters, New York (2020) and 'Soft, Pink, and Warm' at Deanna Evans Projects, New York (2019).
Her works have been included as permanent collections in, among others: Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Museum of Contemporary Art (MAMCO), Geneva; The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Miami; The Colombus Museum of Art, Ohio and The Pond Society, Shanghai.