Sara Suppan (b. 1994, Minneapolis, MN) thinks about each of her paintings as a little handwave, or a hello. Her images are light and strange and sometimes sweet. The everyday is their overarching subject matter—the artist lives alone, and the world of her apartment becomes the world of her paintings. They often include smiley faces, houseplants, mesmerizing repetition (woodgrain, striped fabric, many tiny rocks), and gestures of touch (a hand pinching a cat’s ear, a hairclip lightly clasping fingers). The paintings depend on the contrast between their playful attitude and serious, labor-intensive rendering.

Suppan has most recently exhibited with Kutlesa (Goldau, Switzerland), and Micki Meng (San Francisco) at NADA Miami, and will be included this July in Moosey (UK)’s booth at CAN Art Fair in Ibiza. She will have a summer residency with Moosey in Norwich, UK, and will participate in a group exhibition with SENS Gallery (Hong Kong) this autumn. Within her home city of Minneapolis, Suppan has been included in group shows at Yeah Maybe, The White Page, and Soo Visual Arts Center, among others. Suppan was awarded a Creative Support for Individuals grant in 2021 and an Artist Initiative grant in 2017 from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Her paintings have been published in New American Paintings magazine and in Young Space online. In 2019, she completed a summer residency at Salzburger Kunstverein in Austria, and in 2017, she produced a solo exhibition at Yeah Maybe gallery titled You and I Do Not Form a Number. Suppan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.