Sarah studied at Durham University, the Slade Summer School and Chelsea College of Arts, London, where she completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art.
Her practice focuses on creating through experimental mechanical methods, manipulating the core ingredients and structures more traditionally used in painting. Using this mechanical method of painting, she almost removes the artist from the gesture and emotion of painting, allowing her mediums to speak for themselves.
Orderly, mathematical systems form the framework of her work, but she thinks of painting as an event – one that is as much concerned with the process as it is with the final outcome. Material, machine and artist each take their turn in leading or resisting the outcome and it is a sensitivity to this push and pull that drives the work.
Using her specially made mechanisms, the paint is poured and tilted to create a dialogue between art and science as the paint flows in a single linear stroke. As the work is repeatedly moved from horizontal to vertical positions it adapts and transforms over time, becoming a collaboration between Porter’s own vision and the unpredictable tendencies of her materials. In some instances, mechanisms are stacked on top of each other which allow tilting canvases above to paint subsequent canvases beneath, challenging the idea of authorship within the work. The predictable is balanced with the unforeseen.
The final paintings tell the story and process of making, and become a bi-product of a larger scheme. They act as documentation, objects and commodities – what can be seen as the aftermath of the performative work that took place earlier in the studio.
A key theme within her work is the relationship between colour, proportion and form which she has explored in more depth through her sculptural works and collaborative design practice Porter + Trundle.
She has won numerous accolades for her work which include winning New Ashgate Rising Stars Award 2021, the Richard Seager Annual Arts Award 2019, the London Festival of Architecture City Benches Competition 2019 and the Broomhill National Sculpture Prize 2018. She has also been shortlisted for the Jackson’s Open Painting Prize 2018, Signature Art Prize 2018 and Annex Collection Acquisition Award 2016.
In addition she was awarded National Lottery/Arts Council England funding to develop her creative practice in 2021, she was selected as an artist in residence at Bankside Hotel 2020, was invited to be the visiting artist at the NLCS Jeju Arts Festival in South Korea 2019 and in 2018 was awarded a Project Residency at the Griffin Gallery to work with the chemists at ColArts. She has work in private collections across the world, has exhibited internationally and has been recognised for her work in numerous publications including Wallpaper*, Deezen and Architects’ Journal.She regularly exhibits at The Other Art Fair in London and was recently selected by curators at the National Gallery and the City of Westminster to host her first Solo Show, A painting of two halves at 22 Bury Street, St James’ in 2021.
