Sara Maher is a mid-career visual artist based in lutruwita/Tasmania. Since completing studies in Fine Art at the University of Tasmania (2005 - Master of Fine Art and Design, printmaking and painting), locating a ‘sense of self-in-place’ has been central to focusing the development of her work. At the heart of her practice is deep reflection on our intimate belonging within the more-than-human world, alongside a personal awareness of the gravity of being a settler of Irish-European descent living and creating within Aboriginal lands. Through the tension of these relations she creates large immersive organic abstractions on paper and tenuous, storied art-forms in miniature. Residencies amid remote mountainous and island terrain of lutruwita, and a connected residency amid semi-desert terrain of mainland Australia have been deeply influential:
2020 BRUNY20 Arts Fellowship Residency, Bruny Island Foundation for the Arts (nationally awarded), Lunawanna-alonnah/Bruny island, Tas
2016 Arts Tas Dombrovskis Parks and Wildlife Residency: Warloundigerler/Cradle Mountain, Central Highlands, Tas 2013 Residency: Broken Hill Art Exchange, Wilyakali Country, Broken Hill, NSW
2011 Extended period of research: The Bank (care of LARQ, Landscape Art Research Queenstown), Peerapper and Tommeginne Country, West Coast, Tas
2010 Arts Tasmania Dombrovskis Parks and Wildlife Residency: leeawuleena/Lake St Clair, Central Highlands, Tas
2016 Arts Tasmania Natural and Cultural Residency: wukaluwikiwayna/Maria Island, East Coast, Tas
Selected exhibitions over recent years include:
2022 First Prize: tidal.22, City of Devonport Art Award, Devonport Regional Art Gallery, Tas (art prize) 2022 Water[shed], Bett Gallery, Hobart, Tas (group)
2022 Ancestral Presence, LongHouse, Hobart, Tas (collaborative)
(In collaboration with Palawa/Wiradjuri visual artist Luana Towney)
2021 Un/Touched Wilderness: Devonport Regional Gallery, Tas (group)
2021 In (and out of) the Grey, Bett Gallery, Hobart, Tas (solo)
2018 Where time folds endlessly, Biennale of Australian Art, Ballarat, Vic (art festival)
(in collaboration with sound artist Nigel Farley)
2018 Highly Commended: Hutchins Australian Contemporary Art Prize, Hobart, Tas (art prize)
2018 Bay of Fires Art Prize: Tidal Waters Resort, St Helens, Tas (art prize)
2017 Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Eveleigh, Sydney, NSW (art fare)
2014 Biophilia: Beaver Galleries, Canberra, ACT (group)
2014 Tidal: City of Devonport Art Award, Devonport Regional Art Gallery, Tas (art prize)
2014 Burnie Print Prize: Burnie Regional Art Gallery, Burnie, Tas (art prize)
2014 Where the shadow falls, Unconformity Festival, Lake Margaret Power Station, West Coast, Tas (art festival) (In collaboration with sound artist Nigel Farley)
Sara was recently awarded first prize for tidal.22., City of Devonport Art Award .She is presently working toward a solo exhibition which will take place at Contemporary Art Tasmania (CAT) in 2024.
Sara’s works are held in private collections, nationally and abroad. Sara is represented by Bett Gallery.