Sara Mejia Kriendler’s Sangre y Sol (2021) at NADA x Foreland.
Photo: COURTESY OF PROXYCO GALLERY
Next Big Thing: Sara Mejia Kriendler
Inspired by pre-Columbian artifacts, indigenous mythology, and the sacred power of gold, the New York artist pushes contemporary sculpture in new directions
Sara Mejia Kriendler. Photo: COURTESY OF PROXYCO GALLERY
Inspired by pre-Columbian artifacts and tradition, indigenous mythology, and the sacred power of gold, Sara Mejia Kriendler pushes contemporary sculpture in new directions. Based in Bridgehampton, New York, the artist has developed a visual language that is at once spiritual and symbolic: Gilded terra-cotta eyes implanted in concrete bowls represent the act of vision, and golden mouths cast in a silicone mold from a repurposed cosmetic device reimagine a present-day contrivance as a totem of desire.
Sara Mejia Kriendler’s Sangre y Sol (2021) at NADA x Foreland. Photo: COURTESY OF PROXYCO GALLERY
Inspiration: “My mother is Colombian, and I spent a lot of time there when I was younger, but then didn’t go back for almost 20 years,” says Kriendler, who experienced an artistic awakening at the Gold Museum in Bogotá during a trip home in 2015. “I had one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever encountered looking at art. A whole new door opened in my practice.”
Sara Mejia Kriendler's Heart of Earth (Corazón de Tierra), (2021). Photo: COURTESY OF PROXYCO GALLERY
“Every object Sara has made has been so quietly profound and poetic; I feel as if I am in the presence of something sacred”
JiaJia Fei
Sara Mejia Kriendler, Heart of Earth (Corazón de Tierra), (2021). Photo: COURTESY OF PROXYCO GALLERY
On view: In “El Dorado: Myths of Gold,” a group show at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas in New York, through May 18, 2024, she is displaying a sculpture resembling a bowl filled with her signature eyelike objects cast in chocolate molds. “I’ve always thought of the piece as a kind of offering.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2023 Winter Issue under the headline “Next Big Things.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Click here to see the full list of “Next Big Things.”
Cover: Sara Mejia Kriendler’s Sangre y Sol (2021) at NADA x Foreland.
Photo: COURTESY OF PROXYCO GALLERY
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