Sara Schneckloth
2015 Smelser Vallion Visiting Artist
She is motivated by the question of how science, imagination, and the body inform one another through the activity of drawing. By combining the visual languages of biology, geology, and physics into large-scale, mixed-media, and interactive drawings, she creates images that speak to the physicality of markmaking, the embodiment of memory, and our interpretation of natural systems and phenomena. As it bridges the concerns of traditional illustration, sculpture, and new media, her approach seeks to discover ways in which drawing operates as a site of trans-disciplinary inquiry. At present, she is investigating the intersections of biology and architecture as imagined through drawing.
Schneckloth has shown in over sixty exhibitions throughout the US, South Africa, and France, held numerous artist residencies, and organized collaborative drawing events at several universities and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her essays on drawing and embodiment have appeared in the Journal of Visual Culture, Visual Communications Quarterly, and the Manifest International Drawing Annual. Schneckloth holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a BA from Northwestern University, and has lived and worked in Iowa, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Cape Town, South Africa. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Visual Art and Design at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, where she heads the Drawing Program.
"DRAWING AS EXPERIMENT / STUDIO AS LABORATORY."
On July 16, 2015, Sara Schneckloth spoke about the evolution of her drawing practice as seen through a range of scales, formats, and themes. Exploring the visual culture of science, Schneckloth’s drawings combine diverse elements including video, interactive and sculptural components, and immersive scale. Her current work investigates the relationships between biology, geology, and architecture, as imagined through drawing.
To view an animation from the workshop in Taos, click here.