Morán Morán is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by London-based artist Sara Knowland on Collect, titled Dogs, Egg, Windows, Women. With six works of oil on canvas, Knowland presents a variety of images that broaden her investigation of gender ideologies, specifically as they relate to feminist-political concepts as well as the tradition of images. With this series, the artist moves from the fragmented likeness of the Wicked Witch of the West, barely discernible through the way she splits up the figure, to more classical representations of animals in various appropriated landscapes that feel vaguely familiar and art historically recognizable.

Knowland is interested in how expressivity is handled in contemporary painting and all six works in this exhibition share a distinct sense of emotion. The experience of their affect is suffuse and the figure-ground is held in near suspension as moments of articulation and gesture are as important as the areas where paint has been removed. Each piece hovers in a place reminiscent of a fairytale’s crux, and some even lean monstrous, or at least seem to imply a warning – a caution sign. Knowland’s paintings are echoes of the art historical past and Western symbology, mysterious yet familiar; contemporized with allusions and illusions, packed with metaphor both verbal and visual.

Sara Knowland (b. 1981 Oxford, UK) completed her BA in Painting at The Slade School of Art, UCL London (2007) and received her Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art at RA Schools, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2011). Selected solo and two-person exhibitions include Le Regard Luisant (with Oliver Osborne), curated by Vincent Vanden Bogaard at Galerie Pact, Paris (2020), Mostly Women at Soft Opening, London (2019), Bare Mountain (with Frances Drayson) at The Weston Studio, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2018), and FORTY THIRTY THREE at Lima Zulu, London (2017). Group exhibitions include Silent Tourist (curated by Tom Worsfold) at Mackintosh Lane, London (2019), 28th December 1980 at Asylum Studios, Norwich (2018), Let’s See Where We Were? In The Pit Of Despair, at De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2017), Shadows and Monsters at Studio 7, Gasworks Studios, London (2017), Herald Patch at Plaza Plaza, London (2015), and Congratulations on your ugly handwriting at CURA, Rome (2014). Knowland lives and works in London, UK.