Sarah Bell Wilson
Wilson is an artist born in Kentucky and raised throughout Virginia, whose practice has been shaped by her travels across the U.S. and abroad. Now based in Washington, D.C., she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Painting and Drawing from Longwood University, where she exhibited at The Bedford Gallery and the Longwood Center for Visual Arts (LCVA); her work in the group exhibition Final Departure became part of the LCVA’s permanent collection. In 2024, she was selected by Transformer Gallery to participate in the Transcendence Gala Auction. In 2025, her work was featured in Transformer’s 22nd Annual Gala Auction, Everything is Everything, and she was one of two artists selected to participate in Transformer’s Predestiny exhibition at The LINE DC. She will also participate in Transformer’s FRAMEWORK 39 panel, Women Shaping Contemporary Practice, discussing experiences as a woman artist navigating the contemporary arts landscape. Wilson has co-curated exhibitions including Convergence and If That Makes Sense at the Katzen Arts Center, and has received recognition for her work through awards such as the Ruth Miexner-Bird Scholarship, the Carol Bird Ravenal Art Award, and the CAS Graduate Research Competition. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts, alongside a graduate assistantship, at American University.
Artist Statement
My large-scale canvases consist of thousands of small black and white oil paint marks that accumulate to form landscapes. From a distance, they often appear abstract but gradually resolve into recognizable landscape forms as the marks interact. Each work begins when I experience something in a landscape by chance that holds my attention. These paintings translate the impermanence of a moment into form through focused looking and meticulous mark making.
My physical process is one of methodical labor and observation. By restricting my palette to greyscale tones, I reduce the landscape into its most fundamental elements: light, value, and texture. Marks vary from precise directional lines to dense passages, obscuring and revealing form. From a distance, the collective marks may resolve into a recognizable environment. Upon closer inspection, the image dissolves into a record of the hand.
I emphasize the expansiveness of the sublime to reflect the persistence of an experiential gaze. Each painting serves as an immersive record of time and attention, transforming a momentary observation into a monumental experience.
