Sara Cwynar

Cwynar grew up in Vancouver, Canada. She studied English literature at the University of British Columbia and eventually earned a Bachelor of Design Honours degree from York University in Toronto in 2010. She earned an MFA in Photography from Yale University in 2016. Cwynar has previously worked as a freelance graphic designer for The New York Times.

Cwynar uses a variety of media, including photography, collage, book-making and installation, to explore the nature of photographic images and the power and limitations of the medium itself. Cwynar's background in literature and graphic design helps to create the fascinating hybridity of her pieces. Through the use of saved personal photographs and found images from both printed resources and the internet, her work communicates not only about the final image of a photograph but also about the process of image making. Cwynar is also known for repurposing items bought through sites such as eBay. Cwynar's artwork explores the effects that consumerism (often being softly misogynistic) has on shaping subconscious ideals of beauty and self-image that have become ingrained in society, especially in women. Her work engages with the modern feminist movement as she directly challenges what is being sold to consumers both physically and ideologically in the current media, encouraging viewers to venture below the surfaces of capitalism and modern image culture in order to discover and determine what is “real.” Cwynar had an exhibition in 2014 at Flat Death at Foxy Production in New York. The exhibition had its ideological roots in Kitsch Encyclopedia and explored “a kind of ‘ritual extermination’ upon the hyperreal by confusing representation and reality.” Like Cwynar’s work in general, this show was a mix of photography, collage, rephotography, appropriation and studio set-ups. Cwynar's 2015 project Presidential Index featured photographs of Avon Presidential Bust Cologne bottles that she bought on eBay and removed the heads of the presidents so that only their torsos are visible. In some pieces, she enlarged the busts to be as large as her own torso and in others she arranged the bottles according to the popularity of that president’s scent. She paired these images with pictures of a make-up palette from “Ultra Cosmetics” and two photographs of rugs. Cwynar's ideas behind this piece link these objects to the desire for aesthetic change through commercial and material goods. Her work is in the permanent collection at the Dallas Museum of Art; Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam; Milwaukee Art Museum; MoMA Collection, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Art; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Fondazione Prada, Milan; Baloise Art Collection, Basel, Switzerland; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt Soho House, Toronto; and TD Bank Canada Collection, Toronto. Cwynar adds Girl from contact sheet 3 adds to her exhibition "Flat death" in 2018 as well as adding 3 others. The MoMa holds a distorted chromogenic print of a young girl working in tangent with her other three prints. All sharing resemblances to one another. Cwynar's first live performance titled Down at the Arcade (2021) was commissioned by Performa for Performa 21. With the performance curated by Job Piston and produced by Bob Kalas, Cwynar transformed a retail establishment using her visuals and language.

• 2022 – Sara Cwynar: Apple Red/Grass Green/Sky Blue. ICA LA, Los Angeles, CA. • 2021 – Sara Cwynar. Foxy Production, New York. • 2021 – Red Film. MoMA, NY. Screening on the Museum's website in the Hyundai Card Video Views series. • 2021 – Source. Remai Modern, Saskatoon, SK, Canada • 2020 – Marilyn. The Approach, London, UK • 2019 – Modern Art in Your Life. Commissioned by MoMA and streamed on the Museum's website and social media platforms. • 2019 – Gilded Age. Organized by Amy Smith-Stewart, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT • 2019 – Gilded Age II. Curated by Jenn Jackson, The Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver, BC, Canada • 2019 – Good Life. Curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini, Blitz, Valletta, Malta • 2019 – Image Model Muse. Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI • 2018 – Red Film. 33rd Bienal de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil • 2018 – Image Model Muse. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN • 2018 – Rose Gold. The Approach, London, UK • 2018 – Tracy. Oakville Galleries, Oakville, ON, Canada • 2017 – Soft Film. MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany • 2017 – Tracy. Carl Kostyal, London, UK • 2017 – Rose Gold. Foxy Production, New York, NY • 2016 – “L’image volée”. Curated by Thomas Demand, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy • 2016 – Three Hands. Cooper Cole, Toronto, ON • 2016 – Soft Film. Foxy Production, New York, NY • 2015 – Greater New York. MoMA PS1, New York, NY • 2015 – Presidential Index. Retrospective, Hudson, NY • 2014 – Flat Death. Foxy Production, New York, NY • 2014 – Flat Death. Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA • 2013 – Flat Death. Cooper Cole, Toronto, ON • 2013 – Everything in the Studio (Destroyed). Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands • 2012 – All The Greens. Printed Matter, New York, NY, • 2012 – Accidental Archives. Cooper Cole, Toronto, ON