Sarah Crowner »Zigzags and Curves«

The presentation at Galerie Nordenhake Mexico City brings together a selection of works developed by Sarah Crowner in close dialogue with Galerie Nordenhake Mexico City partner Toni Sadurni, reflecting years of shared travel and research across Mexico and Latin America. Hard-edge geometries and linear structures recur throughout the installation, where zigzags and angular rhythms operate as both formal devices and compositional strategies. Participating artists include, Lygia Clark (Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1920- 1988), Sandú Darié (Roman, Romania 1908 - Habana, Cuba 1991), Frida Escobedo (Mexico City, Mexico, 1979), Gerda Gruber (Bratislava, Austria, 1940), Graciela Iturbide (Mexico City, Mexico, 1942), Elena Izcue (Lima, Peru, 1889-1970), Thembi Nala (Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa, 1973), Celso Renato (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1919-1992), Fanny Sanín (Bogotá, Colombia, 1938), and John Zurier (Santa Monica, California, USA, 1956). Concepts such as gradient, scenario, and stagecraft become integral to the exhibition, echoing Crowner’s interest in how color and form operate physically and temporally. Yellow carpets and curtains introduce a scenographic dimension that activates movement through the space, while the graphic language of the zigzag draws from motifs encountered during Crowner’s extended stays in Mexico, including patterns found in pre-Hispanic visual languages and architectural sites such as Mitla and Tajín.

The exhibition continues at Casa Roja, located at Palmas 1535 in Lomas de Chapultepec,
where Crowner presents of series of new paintings. Responding directly to the architecture
of the mid-century house, the work engages the site’s curved ceiling panels and fully red
interior, unfolding an exploration of organic, biomorphic forms and fully red interior. Casa Roja’s monochromatic environment intensifies the bodily and perceptual experi-
ence of the exhibition, echoing Crowner’s ceramic practice and her interest in color as a spatial condition rather than a surface. The interaction between the artworks and the domestic architecture generates an environment in which form and color unfold gradually, integrating art into the spatial structure of the house.

Both venues employ natural lighting, a decisive factor for the artist, as light—being non-
static—shifts throughout the day, constantly transforming our perception of the work and the environment, achieving a unity in chorus with nature. Taken as a whole, Zigzags and Curves project, as well as the artist’s broader approach, working with art history as a medium that allows her to choreograph proximities between Mexican culture, the historical revision of modernity, geometry, theater, and design. The project places special emphasis on the premises of Neo-Concretism, where two-dimensional works cease to be mere plans to become total artistic and pictorial experiences.

Sarah Crowner was born in Philadelphia in 1974. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Crowner is currently presenting a duo exhibition with with Etel Adnan at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, USA. Recent solo exhibitions were held at SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, USA (2025), Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Hill Art Foundation, New York, USA (2023) and The Instituto Bardi / Casa de Vidro & auroras, São Paulo, Brazil (2023); a major solo exhibition at the Amparo Museum in Puebla, Mexico (2022) as well as a site specific installation at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas (2022-2024), an exhibition at KMAC Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA (2018); a participation in the 57th Edition of Carnegie International (2018); the permanent installation at the Wright Restaurant, Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2017) and the solo exhibition Beetle in the Leaves at MASS MoCA, North Adams (2016).

Crowner's recent collaboration on Pam Tanowitz’s new dance, "Pastoral", together with the composer Caroline Shaw, at the Fisher Center at Bard College in June 2025 received great acclaim. She designed the scenography and costumes for Jessica Lang's “Garden Blue“ with the American Ballet Theatre, NY (2018) as well as the scenography for a revival of Robert Ashley’s “Perfect Lives“ (2012), which travelled to Marfa, Texas and then on to venues in Europe.