Artist Sarajo Frieden

Sarajo Frieden is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores our relationship to the natural world, deep ecology, the evolving identities of diasporic communities, pattern migration, and an interest in the intersection between art and craft.

Referencing a range of contemporary and historic visual art and design vocabulary, painting, western and non-western textile traditions, she investigates this interconnectivity through works on paper, muslin, canvas, installations and wall murals.

Solo and group exhibitions include The Dome Center for Art, Music & Dance, Redondo Beach Historic Library, The Atrium at Helms Design Center, Cerritos College, Torrance Art Museum, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Adams Square Mini Park, Brand Art Library, Monte Vista Projects, and Launch LA. She received fellowships to the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation Residency in New Berlin, NY and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. Recent commissions include murals for Cedars Sinai Urgent Care Clinic in Los Angeles and Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

She has been a guest lecturer at Otis College of Art and Design, CSULB, Cerritos College, and Art Center. For several decades her work has appeared in graphic novels, publications and on textiles and packaging. She is based in Los Angeles.

"My work investigates diverse areas of inquiry by developing visual languages that combine personal history and a fascination with pattern migration and the structure of the living world. I’m enchanted by self-similar structures that repeat fractally in both micro and macrocosmic ways, from the tiniest components of a cell, to leaf veins, plant structures and the entire universe, in all manner of living systems. I knit together discordant sources and break down barriers between the intersections of fine art, craft and design, questioning how hierarchies (especially human exceptionalism) are created. Celebrating exuberant interconnectivity, this way of working opens doors, dislocates preconceived outcomes and shifts perceptions. It’s about potentiality and not knowing all of the answers. We have a vastness of possibilities to respond to these transformative times. Art creates a space that inspires ambiguity and invites experimentation. Exploring the visual diasporic migration of organic and geometric patterns, the spirited interplay and complex interactions of color, light, and space, I welcome the viewer into a world of euphoric and contemplative play."

Tell us a little about yourself (where you are from) and your background in the arts.

I'm originally from Oakland, California, and I've lived most of my life in Los Angeles. Concurrent with my work as a visual artist, I've worked for many years designing and illustrating textiles, editorial illustrations, murals, packaging, soft toys and more.

What kind of work are you currently making?

I'm continuing to explore materials and methods I've been working with for the past few years while experimenting with new materials and processes, such as felt loom collage, hand building with clay, and papermaking.

What is a day like in the studio for you?

Time in the studio often depends on whether I'm immediately preparing for an exhibition or installation. I try to create time and space for unstructured exploration. I'm increasingly aware of how necessary that is for my nervous system. There is so much going on in the world and it's easy to slip into overwhelm. We don't do the work of being human alone, we do it with the many communities we're engaged with and it's important to take time to play and experiment in order to recharge.

What are you looking at right now and/or reading?

I'm always in the midst of several books at once. As the first choice for a newly-formed family book group (VERY casual), we're reading "The Body is a Doorway" by Sophie Strand. I'm also reading "Worn: A People's History of Clothing" by Sofi Thanhauser; "The Book of Earth" by Heidi Gustafson (just begun, also has very beautiful photographs); and I'm re-reading "An Immense World" by Ed Yong, which is an astonishing book.

I read a lot of non-fiction, particularly about the natural world, botany, deep ecology. There are so many good writers who undertake to explain our immensely fascinating world to us--in many cases to remind us of how much is in peril, of what is at stake, and of how much there is to love and care for among the more than human world.

Where can we find more of your work? (ex. website/insta/gallery/upcoming shows)

Website: www.sarajofrieden.net

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sarajofrieden/