Artist Statement

I am an artist who works across media questioning cultural norms, such as the 9:00 to 5:00 work day, the office environment, indoor living, gender stereotypes, and the voluntary sharing of personal data. I creates public interventions and durational performances which I document using photography, video, and GPS.

Bio

Sarah Berkeley was born on the North Shore of Massachusetts and subsequently spent her childhood in Michigan and Colorado. Between high school and college, she lived in Ireland for six months. During her undergraduate studies at UNL, she spent a year in Madrid, Spain. At the completion of her degree, she began her career as a web designer in New York City and in 2003 moved to Berlin, Germany to pursue her art career. While there, she co-founded the Berlin Collaborative Drawing Group and discovered a passion for teaching. After three years in Berlin, she returned to the United States to prepare for graduate school. She has taught at Nebraska Wesleyan University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Metropolitan Community College.

Berkeley holds an MFA in Art & Design from the University of Michigan (2011) and a BFA with Distinction in Studio Art from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2002). She is the recipient of Lincoln Mayor’s Kimmel Award, numerous Nebraska Wesleyan Faculty Development Grants, the Ameritas Grant, the City of Chicago Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) Grant, the Smucker-Wagstaff Research Grant, the Rackham Research Grant, and the University of Michigan School of Art & Design International Travel Grant.

Her artwork has been collected and exhibited internationally, including at the Joslyn Museum of Art, Rapid Pulse International Performance Festival, Louisville Photo Biennial, Rutgers University, The Ann Arbor Film Festival, Defibrillator Gallery, New Capital, Roman Susan, Mana Contemporary, Chicago Artists’ Coalition, Work Gallery Detroit, and Mercury 20. Her artwork has been published in Quarterly West, the Archways Magazine, and OVERVIEW by LAND and SEA. She has completed residencies at The Ragdale Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, ACRE, the Cedar Point Biological Station, and 8550 OHIO.