Sarah Contos, The Raven and The Swan

Sarah Contos layers and manipulates sourced objects, personal artefacts and vestiges of popular culture to draw attention to the relationships between imagery, form and materiality. Working across sculpture, textiles, painting, video and installation, her work explores how emotional, psychological and theatrical interactions trigger intimate experiential responses within a broader collective memory. Often referencing art history, fashion, theatre and cinema, Contos examines the duality and ontological nature of objects with a contemporary and retrospective mindset.

Contos has collaborated on performance, costume and stage design projects since 2002. Since 2009 her work has been included in numerous significant solo and group exhibitions at major Australian institutions, including Eye Lash Horizon, University of New South Wales Galleries, Sydney (2024); In the Belly of Mary Shelley, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (2023); Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart (2019); Balnaves Contemporary Intervention Series: Nikola Tesla Sends Theda Bara to Mars, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2018); Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, (2018); and Carriageworks, Sydney (2017). Contos has undertaken residencies at Artspace, Sydney; 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Beijing; and DESA, Ubud, Indonesia. She was awarded the Cité International des Arts Paris Studio (2019); the Ramsay Art Prize Australia (2017); and the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship (2011). Contos is represented in numerous significant private and public collections, including the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Artbank, Australia; Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Buxton Collection, Melbourne; and Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney.

Sarah Contos, Ramsay Art Prize, Installation view, 2017, Photo Saul Steed 0Z2Y2501
Sarah Contos, Ladies and Gentlemen, Sarah Contos Presents: The Muses and the Folly, 2013
Sarah Contos, 1917: The Great Strike, 2017
Sarah Contos, Rosebush II, 2021
Sarah Contos, 660 Love, 2022
Sarah Contos, Zeus (with Monkey on his back), 2016
Sarah Contos, This is Not a Love Song, 2017
Sarah Contos, Shadowboxing, 2014
Sarah Contos, On Tour, 2017
Sarah Contos, Fable (detail), 2018
Sarah Contos, Pink Panther Breath, 2022
Sarah Contos, Bryans Ferry's Tears, 2022
Sarah Contos, Morning Tea, 2022
Sarah Contos, The Revenge of Alexis Colby, 2016
Sarah Contos, The Red Shoes (after Kate Bush), 2020
Sarah Contos, Quiet Momentum, 2022
Sarah Contos, Cool Oysters with Warm Feelings, 2015
Sarah Contos, Snakes and Ladders, 2017
Sarah Contos, Dressing Room Mirror Holiday, 2022
Sarah Contos, Pow Ow Wow, 2012
Sarah Contos, Madame Lavender, 2020
Sarah Contos, Lost Cat, 2022
Sarah Contos, Death of a New Romantic, 2022
Sarah Contos, Rehersals for a Wakeful Dreaming, 2015
Sarah Contos, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Self Portrait), 2020
Sarah Contos, Backwards Bends, 2017
Sarah Contos, Same Old Scene 2, 2022
Sarah Contos, Smoke Machine Eyeliner, 2022
Sarah Contos, Death of a New Romantic, 2022
Sarah Contos, Birthday Party, 2014
Sarah Contos, Rosebush I, 2021
Sarah Contos, Same Old Scene 3, 2022
Sarah Contos, Smudged Slap + Tickle, 2022
Sarah Contos, Death of a New Romantic, 2022
Sarah Contos, Fable, 2018
Sarah Contos, Death of a New Romantic, 2022
_28A7752Sarah Contos, Death of a New Romantic, 2022
Sarah Contos, Fable, 2018
Sarah Contos, The Raven and The Swan
Sarah Contos, Death of a New Romantic, 2022
Sarah Contos, Death of a New Romantic, 2022
Sarah Contos, Fable, 2018
Sarah Contos, Everyone Was Beautiful at Sometime, 2020
Sarah Contos, Fable, 2018
Sarah Contos, My Friend, Lavender, 2020
Sarah Contos, Medusa, 2020
Sarah Contos, Tulips, 2020
Sarah Contos, My Little David Foster Wallace Pony, 2020
Sarah Contos, Exhibition Poster, 2018

Sarah Contos

Eye Lash Horizon