Mary Sauer
18x24” oil on panel “I saw the sun force the darkness to hide”
Painter Mary Sauer was born in Greenville, Kentucky in 1986. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States including over a dozen shows in New York City alone. Mary is a 2014 recipient of The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant for traditional figure painting and winner of the 2014 Director’s Award and Purchase Prize at the Springville Museum of Art’s 2014 Spring Salon. Mary's art is influenced by nineteenth century painting including John Singer Sargent, the Pre-Raphealites, and the French Academics, as well as contemporary realist academic painting and fashion photography. Her philosophy is to combine the nineteenth century techniques of painting with more modern conceptual ideas, especially regarding how we present ourselves to the world psychologically.
Her work has been featured on the cover of American Art Collector Magazine, in the annual, "21 Under 31," feature in Southwest Art Magazine, and in feature articles in both International Artist Magazineand the April 2014 issue of The Artists Magazine. Her painting, 'Anna' was awarded Best in Show at the 2012 Portrait Society of America International Portrait Competition, for which she was again a finalist in 2013. Her education includes a BFA in Illustration from Brigham Young University in 2009, further studies at The Art Student's League of New York and The Grand Central Academy of Art, and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from The University of Utah. For two years she apprenticed in the studio of master painter William Whitaker. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at Brigham Young University teaching advanced life drawing, Utah Valley University teaching head drawing, and at the University of Utah teaching painting. Her work is in a number of permanent collections including those of the Springville Museum of Art and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She is represented by Meyer Gallery in Park City, UT and Sloane Merrill Gallery in Boston, MA and currently resides near Salt Lake City, Utah.
Insta: @marysauerart