Sarah Lamb is a talented and dynamic realist painter. With classical skill—and through transparency, depth and texture—she captures the minute details of everyday objects in her dramatic still lifes and luscious landscapes. She makes us love the familiar and see beauty in the mundane.
Born in Petersburg, VA, with a passion for art and an appreciation for the past, Sarah spent a semester at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy before graduating from Brenau Women’s College with a BS degree in Studio Art in 1993. Following a summer workshop in Santa Fe, NM with renowned classical painter Jacob Collins, she spent two years painting at The Ecole Albert Defois in the Loire Valley with classical realist artist Ted Seth Jacobs.
In 1997 she moved to New York and spent the next 6 years studying and painting under Jacob Collins at the Water Street Atelier. During this time, she had successful one-woman shows in major galleries in Atlanta, Houston, and San Francisco and was represented in art galleries in Alexandria, VA, St. Simon’s Island and Gainesville, GA, Sag Harbor, NY and Madison, CT.
More recently, she has had sell-out, one-woman shows at the Spanierman Gallery in NY, the Meredith Long Gallery in Houston, TX and the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco. She has been featured in magazines such as American Artists, American Art Collector and Southwest Art as one of America’s most talented young painters.
British-born art critic, John A. Parks, wrote that “Sarah Lamb brings to her work a robustly sensual grasp of the world. Her keenness of eye and joyful brush make the whole enterprise feel freshly alive as she reminds us what the really wonderful things in life are.”
Today, Sarah, her husband, artist David Larned, and their daughter, Sadie, divide their time between Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley and Houston, Texas, where Sarah continues to create art that captivates and inspires
2017 Recent Paintings, Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX
2016 New Work by Sarah Lamb, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2015 Sarah Lamb Solo Show, Grenning Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Recent Paintings, Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX
2010 John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX
2008 Recent Paintings, Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY
2006 John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY
2005 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX
2005 Susan Powell Fine Art, Madison, CT
2003 John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX
2002 Swan Coach House, Atlanta, GA
2000 Introduction 2000, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX
1993 Brenau University, The Women’s College, Gainesville, GA
Museum Exhibitions
2017 Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX - A Feast for the Eyes: 200 years of American Still-life Painting from the Hevrdejs Collection
2013 Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
2012 Cahoon Museum of American Art, Cotuit, MA - All Hallow's Eve: Symbols of Halloween
2011 New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, CT - NEW/NOW - Sarah Lamb - Recent Paintings
2010 Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY - The Things Themselves
2010 Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA - Reality Check - Contemporary American Trompe L'oeil
Group Exhibitions
2023 - Musings, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2022 - Bounty of Beauty, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2021 - Clever Clarity, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2021 - Painting Beloved, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2020 - Butko Lamb, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2019 - School's Out! Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2019 - Broad Impressions, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2019 - Philadelphia Fine Art Fair, Philadelphia, PA
2018 - Masters of Poetic Realism, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2018 - Sarah Lamb and Edward Minoff, Masters of Contemporary Realism, Cavalier Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Contemporary Still Life, Cavalier Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Veritas: New Realism, Ann Korologos Gallery, Basalt, CO
2016 Cardone and Lamb, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2015 American Realism: Past to Present. Cavalier Galleries, New York, NY
2014 Sarah Lamb and Edward Minoff, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2013 Still Life, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 Gallery Selections, Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Trompe L'oeil, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010 Eat, Drink and Be Merry, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Recent Paintings, Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX
2007 Trompe l’oeil, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 Five Women, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 Water Street Atelier, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 Interiors, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005 Valentines, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005 Paint What You Want, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Connecticut Landscapes, Susan Powell Fine Art, Madison, CT
2004 New York Realism Today, Apex Gallery, Washington, DC
2003 Self Portraits, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003 Exposed: The Nude, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003 Still Life Tradition from the 18th Century to the Present, Susan Powell Fine Art, Madison, CT
2003 Views of Balleroy, The Forbes Gallery, New York, NY
2003 Local Landscapes, Susan Powell Fine Art, Madison, CT
2002 Still Lifes, Florals, Interiors, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CAGrenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York, Four person show
2001 GE General Headquarters, Fairfield, CT, New Masters Show
2001 John Pence, San Francisco, CA, "Homage To" Group show
2001 Meredith Long, Houston, TX, "Water Street Atelier Show"
2000 Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York, Sketches of Spain
2000 John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, California, Introductions
1999 Meredith Long Gallery, "Water Street Atelier Show", Houston, Texas
1999 Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York
Sarah Lamb's role as one of our country's leading Poetic Realists is demonstrated clearly with this solo show. In addition to her deft use of the abstract composition and design, we are now seeing her deeply American sensibility emerge. Lamb's juxtaposition of European illusionistic still life and tromp l'oeil techniques applied to distinctly American objects is mesmerizing. Her recent move to Texas is starting to widen that gap even further as she supplants her familiar East Coast objects with Southwestern Americana. Lamb's national following, comprised of collectors, the press and museum curators, eagerly await new works from her consistent and insightful hand.
This show is anchored by the grand scale weather vane paintings, which build on the theme she started in 2010. These giant tromp l'oeil paintings are technically entrancing, AND compelling compositions from across the room. Lamb is able to marry her highly refined craft to a more modern aesthetic by simplifying her palette and her design. "Dexter III" a moody interpretation of a popular subject, a galloping horse, is a quiet and powerful image of this very New England antique weathervane.
"Chocolate Cake and Milk" a contemporized version of the Dutch still life, however, somehow feels so... American. The coolness of the milk and the rich chocolate frosting is almost palpable. "Lobster", "Mussels with Pitcher" and "Seckel Pears" each capture the feeling of her Mid-Atlantic States origin. To contrast, the partridge and pheasant still life paintings mark a shift toward a sporting life that is more particular to her new home in Texas. Of course the beautifully rendered copper pot is not new to her oeuvre. To round out the show, as a nod to her ardent followers, Lamb offers a series of stellar white flower still lifes, for which we continue to see an endless appetite.
Born in Petersburg, Virginia in 1972, Lamb always demonstrated a passion for art and art history. She graduated from Brenau Women's College with a BS in Studio Art in 1993, and during that degree program studied in Florence, Italy. Subsequently she studied with the renowned classical painters Jacob Collins in New York and then Ted Seth Jacobs in France.
Sarah Lamb recently moved to Houston Texas with her husband, the artist David Larnard, and their 5 year old daughter Sadie, from their home in Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley.
Comments by Laura Grenning, May, 2015
Continuing with the theme of contemporary classical realism is Lambs, "Antique Sulky Weathervane". In this work we see an antique weathervane of a one-horse carriage atop a seemingly weathered pedestal. Lambs ability to capture the light on her subjects draws one in, while the vast inclusion of painstaking details keeps onlookers immersed in her compositions. With a limited palette, Lamb also manages to capture a sense of life and warmth in an otherwise cold and inanimate form. With the brassy oranges and hints of subdued yellows and green-tinted grays, a feeling of nostalgia is evoked from a subject that existed in a time entirely different then our own.
