Sarah Vaughn
I create sculptures and installations that pause to consider pivotal moments and visualize the precarious balance we maintain throughout life. Primarily using cast and cold-formed processes, I exploit the preconceived perception of glass as a material to help articulate the topics being explored, asking the viewer to question the material being used and how it changes their notion of what they see.
My work focuses on responses to experiences throughout life. I consider each piece an abstracted self-portrait, capturing thoughts, anxieties, memories, and hopes. Recurring themes like “precarious balance” and “contemplative moments” speak to the desire to find harmony and a sense of order while acknowledging that I am tiptoeing on the edge of chaos. At times, using tension, friction, and gravity to stack, wedge, and balance elements to create the desired effect. The emotional response elicited from the viewer is meant to allow pause, reflecting on one’s own history, finding common ground within the emotions we have all experienced throughout life, regardless of the narratives that lead us there.
Sarah Vaughn grew up in Southern Illinois, discovering glass while pursuing a BFA at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She has been exploring the material ever since. Upon graduating, her thesis work was honored as the sole winner of the Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award, a prestigious competition for graduating seniors in Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited and collected internationally, receiving numerous accolades, and featured in publications such as Emerge 2008 and 2012 and American Art Collector. She has been a resident artist at the University of Oregon, The WORKS Museum in Ohio, and was the first MFA Traveling Assistant Resident at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio. She was invited to participate in the inaugural residency program at Glass Wheel Studios in Norfolk, Virginia, where she created work for two years. After receiving her MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2014, she was awarded a Research and Creativity Grant and invited to exhibit at SOFA Chicago. She has forged several award-winning collaborative practices with fellow artists and friends. In the fall of 2021, Sarah moved to Penland School of Crafts to be an Artist-in-Residence. She enjoys life in the mountains, where she spends time with her dog while pursuing new veins of her work and fixing broken rocks.
2024 *Where Water Meets Land | Focus Gallery Penland Gallery | Penland, NC
Material Topics Symposium Exhibition: Shift in Values |Wellington B. Grey Gallery | Greenville, NC
2023 CraftForms 2023 | Wayne Art Center | Wayne, PA
Artlink’s 4th Annual Cup Exhibition | Artlink Contemporary Gallery | Fort Wayne, IN
Connections 2023 | Glass Art Society Venue | Detroit, MI
Fantastic Fibers | Yeiser Art Center | Paducah, KY
Domestic Detritus | Brea Gallery | Brea, CA
2022 Small Works/Big Impact |Momentum Gallery | Asheville, NC
Uncommon Volumes: Sculptural Selections from Studio Glass in the Region | Blowing Rock Art and History Museum | Blowing Rock, NC
A Shared Space | Appalachian Center for Craft | Cookeville, TN
Illuminations in Glass | Winterowd Fine Art | Santa Fe, NM
Connections 2022 | Tacoma Museum of Glass | Tacoma, WA
2021 Small Works/Big Impact | Momentum Gallery | Ashville, NC
Lost|Found | Ken Saunders Gallery | Chicago, IL
X-Marks the Spot: A Decade of the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio | Commune | Norfolk, VA
Photo/Graphic Tendencies | Gallery 261 | Norfolk, VA
Pilchuck: Celebrating 50 Years | Matzke Fine Art Gallery & Sculpture Park | Camano Island, WA
Connections: Glass from Every Angle | Glass Art Society International Juried Exhibition | Virtual
Systems of Tension: Collaborative Installation by Caitlin Blomstrom and Sarah Vaughn | Vestibule 102 Chrysler Museum Glass Studio | Norfolk, VA
Materials Hard and Soft | Patterson-Appleton Arts Center | Denton, TX
2020 Chroma 2020 | The Gallery at Fort Houston | Nashville, TN
