Sandra Taggart

Biography

BIO

Sandra Taggart's work is about the vastness, beauty, and power of nature. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She paints, makes collages, draws, and produces installations and performances.

Sandra Taggart is a recipient of a Brooklyn Arts Council CAF grant. She was a finalist for the 13th Alexander Rutsch Award and Exhibition for Painting 2025, and was awarded Best Acrylic Painting in Show, BWAC, Brooklyn. She has participated in exhibits throughout the United States, including the Hammond Museum, Monmouth Museum, Mishkin Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, Austin Museum of Art, and Kentler International Drawing Space. She had a solo exhibition at FiveMyles Gallery in Brooklyn, where, the following year, she mounted a performance entitled “About Time: A Meditation in Six Movements.” Taggart's work has been reviewed in The Record-Review, New Art International Annual,  Art Buzz, and The Brooklyn Paper. Her book, “A Sketchbook for a Short History of the Universe,” is in the collection of the Brooklyn Art Library.

Taggart was a merit scholar at Ox-Bow School of Art. She studied in the art department of Washington University in St. Louis and received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

 CV

Born in Chicago, IL; Live and work in Brooklyn, NY, and San Miguel, Mexico

Awards and Grants

2025     Finalist 13th Alexander Rutsch Award and Exhibition for Painting

2014     CAF Grant, Brooklyn Arts Council

2010     Best Acrylic Painting in Show, BWAC, Brooklyn  Jurors: Ann Straus, Metropolitan Museum, Mark Hughes, Galleries Lelong, Chelsea, Bill Murphy, Wagner College

Education

BFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago with the University of Chicago

Additional Studies:

         School of the New York Botanical Garden

         NYU, Hunter: graduate studies in Educational Psychology

         Ox-Bow School of Art; Saugatuck, MI (Merit Scholar)

         Department of Fine Arts, Washington University, St. Louis, MO

Performance Art

2015  

 About Time: A Meditation in Six Movements by Sandra Taggart, FiveMyles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

Solo Exhibitions

2014    

Night Sky and Beyond, FiveMyles Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

Selected Group Exhibitions

2025   

       Serene and EXUBERANT Color,  Curated by Darcy Spitz. Avani Patel and Juliet Martin,                     Great Hall Gallery, First Presbyterian Church, NY, NY

2024   

Faded Sea, Curated by Hayley Ferber, Great Hall Gallery, First Presbyterian Church,

Salon De Refuses, BWAC, Brooklyn, NY

Imaginarium: Universe of the Mind, curated by Darcy Spitz, Avani Patel, and SandraTaggart 

Women Celebrate Women 2, curated by Yvonne Lamar Rogers, El Barrios Artspace, NY

2023 

The Mirror Blue Night, curated by Patrick Neal, Undercroft Gallery,the Church of Heavenly Rest, NY,        NY 

Seed, curated by Barbara Swanson and Fran Bealor, Great Hall Gallery, First Presbyterian Church,          NY, NY

De.Code, curated by Monique Alain, Anna Luisa Addor, and Pauline Galiana, New York Artists Circle,        NY/Online

Perspectives and Perception, curated by Barbara J. Sussman and Emily Sussman, Blue Hill Art &           Cultural Center, Pearl River, NY

City Life, curated by Lori Horowitz and Kathleen Migliore-Newton, New York Artist Circle, NY/Online

2022

Seeing Music, curated by Yvonne Lamar-Rogers and Cheryl Aiden, New York Artists Circle,                     NY/Online

Kingdom Anamalia, Biafarin Exhibition, Ontario, Canada/Online

Elsewhere, curated by Hayley Ferber, New York Artists Circle, NY/Online

Fragile Rainbow, curated by Patricia Watts, WAH Center, Brooklyn, NY

2021 

Causality, Atlantic Gallery, NY, NY

Scale within the artist's practice, The Great Hall Gallery @ First Presbyterian Church, NY, NY

Women Celebrate Women, El Barrios' Artspace PS 109, NY, NY

13th Annual Juried Exhibition, Prince Street Gallery, NY, NY

Lost and Found, New York Artists Circle, NY/Online

Our Connection with Nature - Earth Day 2021, Gallery Sitka, Shirley, MA

Fragile Earth, New York Artists Circle, NY/Online

2020   

 Save the Earth Exhibition, Art at First,. Manhattan/Online. Curators: Barbara Sherman, Fran Beallor

2018    

Access Art, Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn, NY      

2017   

 Nasty Women, Knockdown Center, Maspeth, Queens, NY 

 Access Art, BAC Dumbo, Brooklyn  

 Sideshow Nation IV Thru the Rabbit Hole Life on Mars, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

 Somewhere Over the Interconnected Rainbow & Prospero’s Grand St Masque, Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ

2016    

Access Art, BAC Dumbo, Brooklyn  

Big Small Show, Victory Hall Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ 

FiveMyles 2016 Benefit, Brooklyn, NY 

Fusion: Art Influenced by Science, Westchester C.C. Center for the Arts, White Plaines, NY. Curator Virginia Walsh         

Small Works/Baruch/2016, Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, NY, NY. Curator Richard Timperio        

Sideshow Nation IV Thru the Rabbit Hole Life on Mars, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2015   

New Directions Exhibition, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, Juror Janet Bishop, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Small Works/Baruch, Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, NYC. Curator Richard Timperio

2014   

 The Subject Is War, Wiseman Gallery, Rogue College, Grants Pass, OR

  FiveMyles Benefit, Brooklyn, NY

2013    

Selections from Curate NYC, Conde Nast Building, NY, NY. Presented by The Durst Org. and Chashama. Curator Janusz Jaworski  

Curate NYC      

Paths to Peace, Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden, North Salem, NY. Curator Elizabeth Maxwell   

2012    

GO open studio Project, sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, NY          

Small Works, 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn, NY 

Open Small Works, National Association of Women Artists Gallery, New York, NY

Non-Verbal Interaction, Present Global Art Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL

Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ

Hullaballoo Collective, Fountain Art Fair, 69th Regiment Armory, NY, NY

Postcards from the Edge, Hosted by Cheim & Read, New York, NY

2011 

Joy, Grace Institute, New York, NY

GSB/BWAC Art on Loan Program, Garvey Schubert Barer, NY, NY

The Sketchbook Project, Brooklyn Art Library, Brooklyn, NY Circulated to: Austin Museum of Art; 29th ST Ballroom at Spider House, Austin, TX; Space Gallery, Portland, ME; Granite Room; Atlanta, GA; Hillyer Art Space, Washington, DC; Mercer Gallery/ Monroe Community College, Rochester, NY; Form/Space Atelier, Seattle, WA; 111Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; Full Sail University, Winter Park, FL

2010    

Wide Open, BWAC, Brooklyn, NY: jurors: Ann Strauss, Mark Hughes, and Bill Murphy     

Fracking: Art and Activism Against the Drill, Exit Art Gallery, NY, NY

2008    

Paradise Lost, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY        

Timeout NY 2nd Saturdays, BWAC, Brooklyn, NY

2007    

Brooklyn, Madarts Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2002    

Small Works on Paper, Kentler Intl. Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY

A Place in It, Brooklyn Brewery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY

Bibliography

Ecoartspace 2019

The Record-Review Sept. 2013, Bedford/Pound Ridge, NY 2013     

New Art International Annual (4 pages) 2009           

Art Buzz Annual 2009

The Brooklyn Paper 2009

Dancer and Performer    

Multiple performances with Sylvia Palacios Whitman at: Trisha Brown’s Studio, Kitchen and DTW, NYC

Roof Tops with “A” (Arlene Schloss): , SoHo, NYC

C.U.L. 3 with Jean Dupuy, NYC

Public Collections     

Brooklyn Art Library, Brooklyn, N

Artist statement

My paintings, drawings, and performances are vehicles through which I mount investigations of fundamental elements of the world. Motivated by curiosity, wonder, awe, reverence, and apprehension I have become knowledgeable in several fields, including; the fundamental workings of the universe, time, the environment, biodiversity, and social upheaval & disintegration.

My process varies depending on the best way to present my thoughts. Either I begin with an idea of how things work e.g. time or the universe, or current events move me, or sometimes I am simply inspired by an image - usually of something evoking a strong emotion or that causes me to experience awe. 

My first step is to research the idea through books or online.

If the work is a painting, my usual media, I begin by painting a colored ground onto the canvas. That ground usually remains the predominant color of the painting. Next, using a single dark paint directly onto the ground, I build the composition. If the painting portrays the cosmos or an earth-bound sky or even dust, I may rub layers of glitter into the ground.

To build texture and evoke meaning, l add mathematical formulae of the structure of the universe over the ground in various configurations. From there I paint the foreground imagery onto the canvas. My subject matter determines my painting technique. If it is the cosmos, dripping, spattering, and spraying paint is required to describe the gaseous states and the starry splendor of the subject. For more landscape-focused works, I often lay down flat paint and use wadded paper towels to scumble the paint and work with a fine brush or pen to add details. In most cases, these processes are repeated and layered,

The completed works result from the exploration and contemplation of science, nature, and the human experience.

I believe works of art should attract, engage, challenge, and reward, to do this I explore both the terrible and the beautiful to engage the viewer with the mysteries of existence and an enhanced awareness of our own time and place.