Sarah Beth Goncarova facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sarah Beth Goncarova
Born	United States
Education	University of Maryland School of Architecture Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts University of Oregon
Known for	Sculpture Painting Installation art Writing
Movement	Contemporary Feminist art

Sarah Beth Goncarova (born in 1980) is an American artist, writer, and composer. She is known for her amazing art that uses light and sound to create experiences about nature. She also writes poetry, adventure novels for kids, and scripts for movies and TV shows.

Early Life and Education

Sarah Beth Goncarova was born in 1980. Her dad was a scientist who studied the environment, and her mom was an art teacher. This mix of science and art helped shape her future work!

When she was young, Sarah Beth started playing the piano. She later shared that she experienced something called chromesthesia. This means that when she heard music, she would actually see colorful shapes moving in space!

She was a talented musician from a young age. She even performed with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra when she was only nine years old. A famous pianist named Andre Watts even let her use his personal piano for her first big performance.

Sarah Beth went to the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. There, she earned a special degree in Sculpture. Later, she got her master's degree in architecture from the Maryland School of Architecture.

Her Art Career

Sarah Beth Goncarova loves to create art using many different materials. She has worked with plaster, fibers, and ink.

Early Exhibitions

In 2006, she had a small art show in San Francisco. The next year, in 2007, she had her very own show in Palo Alto, California.

By 2008, her paintings often showed people, landscapes, and everyday objects.

The Wake Project

In 2009, Sarah Beth started a special art project called The Wake Project. In this series, her beautiful landscapes often hid serious environmental problems. For example, her painting Lighter Fluid showed a bright ocean scene. But the bright ripples in the water were actually from an oil spill.

Her solo art show Lush/Bleak happened in the summer of 2009. Her art was also part of a group show called Blue Planet in San Francisco.

Exploring Feminist Themes

Around this time, Sarah Beth also started showing her art in exhibitions that focused on feminist ideas. These shows included Control, which was judged by a group called Guerrilla Girls West, and Reversing the Gaze: Man As Object.

Abstract Art

From 2010 to 2011, Sarah Beth returned to creating simple, abstract paintings. These were part of her series like Rainy Season, Dawn, Night Spin, and Cosmos. These works were shown in galleries, including the John Slade Ely Center for Contemporary Art.

In 2011, a very large piece of her art called “Hunks of Burnin’Love” was chosen for an exhibition. It was displayed at the Sanchez Arts Center in Pacifica, California.

Sculptural Installations

In 2012, Sarah Beth began making large sculptures using textiles, which are fabrics. This series was called Keeping Time With Needle and Thread. This allowed her to combine her love for sculpture with feminist themes. She used cloth, sewing, and needlework to represent "women's work" in a new way.

These textile sculptures were first shown at Gallery 195 in New Haven. They have also been displayed at other places like the Whitney Center and the A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn.

One of her large pieces, "May–June (2012)," was chosen for a special exhibition in 2013. This was part of her nomination for the important William and Dorothy Yeck Award. In 2013, Sarah Beth received grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and the Puffin Foundation to help her continue creating her textile sculptures.

In 2013, she also received support from Artspire, a program by the New York Foundation for the Arts. This helped her keep working on her Keeping Time with Needle and Thread series. In this project, she explores what sculpture can be by mixing needle-crafts, sculpture, sound, and performance art.

Writing Projects

In 2012, Sarah Beth Goncarova helped write and edit a book called Sonia's Song. This book was a memoir about Sonia Korn-Grimani's experiences during and after World War II.