"Shared Landscapes: A Conversation with Sarah Crowner" by Maureen Sullivan

Etel Adnan’s large-scale ceramic mural Untitled (2023) debuted alongside an extensive presentation of her work in the solo exhibition “Painting into Space” (2023–24) at The Bass Museum in Miami. The spectacular work, created posthumously from a 2020 drawing, features vibrant geometric fields of color. One of less than 10 Adnan ceramic murals worldwide, it is the sole example in the U.S. In a fascinating activation—now on view as part of the museum’s permanent collection—Bass curator-at-large James Voorhies commissioned two artists to create back-to-back projects “in dialogue” with the work.

The first, created by Ulla von Brandenburg, featured a multimedia theatrical project, with Adnan’s mural serving as backdrop and inspiration and works by Sonia Delaunay providing additional visual references. With “Faire Foyer,” Sarah Crowner has taken a more formal and serene, though no less energized approach, with a focus on a shared interest in social and spatial environments, light, and abstracted and geometric forms.

Maureen Sullivan: I have to give James Voorhies credit for amazing artist-matchmaking. While working in vastly different ways, you and Etel Adnan experiment with a similar range of materials, colors, and forms, and even have the California coast as a common inspiration. You mentioned that you knew of Adnan’s work but hadn’t considered it in terms of your own. What were your thoughts when Voorhies approached you to create a project in dialogue with Adnan’s mural? Did he have something already in mind?

Sarah Crowner: I was very aware of Adnan’s work and appreciated it from afar. I’ve always thought that her most beautiful works are her large-scale tapestries; but honestly, I was more interested in her life story and background than her work in the formal sense. Her relationship to California and its landscape is something I know very intimately. I never had the opportunity to study her ceramic murals, so when James approached me about making an exhibition in this space with the mural, I was curious and became motivated to try something new.

Read full interview at sculpturemagazine.art