Sasha Gordon

Sasha Gordon was born in 1998 to a Polish American Jewish father and a Korean mother. She grew up in Somers, New York and expressed interest in art at an early age. When she was four, she was encouraged by her mother who set up a table with crayons, colored pencils, and paper.{{Cite web|title=By Painting Herself, Sasha Gordon Found True Perspective|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/sasha-gordon-profile|access-date=2023-03-06|website=Vogue|date=27 February 2023 |language=en-gb}} At five, she began taking classes at a local art center.{{cite web |title=Sasha Gordon – Emerging Artist Exhibit |url=https://www.katonahartcenter.com/events/sasha-gordon-emerging-artist-exhibit/ |website=Katonah Art Center |date=28 January 2020 |access-date=22 May 2023}} At ten, a local newspaper published a photo of Gordon painting an accurate full-scale replica of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night.{{cite web |title=Sasha Gordon Instagram Page |url=https://www.instagram.com/p/C2iDJ4POetH/ |website=Instagram |access-date=18 February 2024}} Gordon says that she was doing a lot of master copies at this time, such as paintings after Claude Monet’s water lilies and Georgia O’Keeffe’s poppy flowers.{{cite web |last1=Giller |first1=Gwyneth |title=Girl Talk with Sasha Gordon |url=https://elephant.art/girl-talk-with-sasha-gordon/ |website=Elephant |access-date=10 October 2024}} During these early years, she spent hours after school painting rather than doing her homework.{{cite web |last1=Zara |first1=Janelle |title=Sasha Gordon Is Making Waves with Her Potent and Humorous Self-Portraits |url=https://galeriemagazine.com/sasha-gordon/ |website=Galerie |access-date=2 June 2024}} She describes her adolescent years as "sheltered" and says that she had a "subconscious curiosity" about the medium of paint which motivated her to hone her painting skills on her own, without a local art scene to turn to.{{cite web |last1=Aster |first1=Brooke |title=Living in the Limitless: Sasha Gordon |url=https://officemagazine.net/living-limitless-sasha-gordon |website=Office Magazine |access-date=29 July 2024}}

Gordon entered the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2016. There she soon experimented with hyperrealistic paintings of the human face. During her sophomore year, she began shifting towards painting self-portraits. This caught the attention of gallerist Matthew Brown, who included one of Gordon's paintings in a group show at his LA gallery in 2019 while she was still at RISD, and the following year gave Gordon her first solo show, which drew favorable reviews from critics and led to her first museum acquisition by ICA Miami.{{Cite web|title=The Artsy Vanguard 2022: Sasha Gordon|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artsy-vanguard-2022-sasha-gordon|access-date=2023-03-06|website=Artsy|date=15 November 2022 |language=en-gb}}

Over the following years, Gordon's career gained momentum, leading ArtNet to describe her early success as "head-spinning".{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Katie |title='I Want to Show the Conflict I Experience Within My Brain': Young Painter Sasha Gordon on Her Tender and Menacing Self-Portraits |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/sasha-gordon-deitch-interview-2135400 |website=ArtNet News |date=24 June 2022 |access-date=22 May 2023}} In 2022, one of her large self-portraits was shown at the Rudolph Tegners Museum outside Copenhagen alongside older established artists like Cecily Brown and Jenna Gribbon. New American Paintings named Gordon's painting My Friend Will Be Me their #1 2022 "Painting We Just Can't Stop Thinking About".{{cite web |title=New American Paintings Official Instagram Account |url=https://www.instagram.com/p/CmuFj_9J8rd/ |website=Instagram |access-date=29 May 2023}}{{Registration required|date=May 2023}} Gordon's profile in Cultured Magazine was one of the publication's ten "Most Read" stories in 2022.{{cite web |title=Cultured's Most Read Stories from 2022 |url=https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2022/12/16/top-stories-art-design-fashion-architecture-2022 |website=Cultured Magazine |access-date=29 May 2023}}

In 2023, her painting Campfire was included in the Hammer Museum’s show Together in Time.{{cite web |title=Together in Time: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2023/together-time-selections-hammer-contemporary-collection |website=Hammer Museum |date=26 March 2023 |access-date=20 May 2023}} Also that year, visitors to the Baltimore Museum of Art voted Gordon's painting Mood Ring as one of their top five "most loved" works in the museum.{{cite web | author1=BMA staff |title=Five Most Loved Artworks at the BMA |url=https://stories.artbma.org/five-most-loved-artworks-at-the-bma/ |website=Baltimore Museum of Art |date=23 February 2023 |access-date=21 May 2023}} In December 2023, her first solo museum show opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, coinciding with Art Basel. ArtNet called the opening of the show "highly anticipated" and noted that Gordon is "among the most sought-after young artists".{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Katie |title=For Her Major Museum Debut, Brooklyn Star Sasha Gordon Paints Hybrid Notions of the Self |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/sasha-gordon-2401008 |website=ArtNet News |date=7 December 2023 |publisher=ArtNet |access-date=7 December 2023}} Gordon attended the 2023 Met Gala as a guest of Balenciaga, wearing an outfit designed for the occasion by Elena Velez.{{cite web |last1=Wheeler |first1=Andre-Naquian |title=Meet the Four Independent Designers Balenciaga Invited to the Met Gala |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/meet-the-four-independent-designers-balenciaga-invited-to-the-met-gala |website=Vogue |date=2 May 2023 |access-date=20 May 2023}}

In 2024, The New York Times called Gordon one of the "artists redefining portraits of the human body for a more inclusive age".{{cite news |last1=Halperin |first1=Julia |title=A New Way of Looking at the Nude |work=The New York Times |date=3 April 2024 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/t-magazine/contemporary-nude-art.html |access-date=4 April 2024}} She debuted several new paintings in a show at the Jewish Museum (Manhattan) in May 2024.{{cite web |title=Exhibition Featuring the Work of Seven Emerging Artists Who Challenge the Boundaries of Figurative Art |url=https://thejewishmuseum.org/press/press-release/overflow-afterglow |website=The Jewish Museum |access-date=5 September 2024}} In September 2024, she became the youngest artist to join the roster of David Zwirner Gallery and, according the ArtNews, among the youngest of any artist to be represented by a gallery of that stature. David Zwirner, after seeing Gordon's work for the first time at her 2023 Institute of Contemporary Art (Miami) show, said "I felt that I was in the presence of an artist of our time and for our time, an entirely new voice, a painter who is pushing the genre into uncharted territory."{{cite web |last1=Greenberger |first1=Alex |title=Sasha Gordon Joins David Zwirner, Making Her the Gallery's Youngest Artist |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/sasha-gordon-david-zwirner-representation-1234716661/ |website=ARTNews |access-date=5 September 2024}}

Gordon lives in Brooklyn, New York and works from her studio there.{{cite web |last1=Wong |first1=Harley |title=16 Rising Artists of the Asian Diaspora in the United States |url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-16-rising-artists-asian-diaspora |website=Artsy |date=20 May 2021 |access-date=22 May 2023}}

Art Basel's Stories publication said of Gordon's work ahead of her first museum solo show

Contradicting painting traditions that positioned women as objects to be consumed, the female forms in these works are object and protagonist, subject and voyeur – unapologetic in their rage. {{cite web |last1=Breukel |first1=Claire |title=Sasha Gordon paints to process the pains of prejudice |url=https://www.artbasel.com/stories/sasha-gordon-institute-contemporary-art-miami?fbclid=PAAaZyXn5jX_I-QdKcJya24Ed_8hEqITFwMG81NX7NVMSgvOEzrTeXzLskh5c_aem_AedskxptfGFKaTpXkVvvYmPF2lv2u3K-gGZwrQgs8q33yuqzA_P0cbp_tPj9_g3NiWY |website=Art Basel |access-date=13 November 2023}}

Gordon has cited as references Liu Wei, Kerry James Marshall, Nicole Eisenman, Dana Shutz, Lisa Yuskavage, Tetsuya Ishida, and Cheyenne Julien.

For some of her work, Gordon draws inspiration from renaissance painters such as Botticelli, Titian, and Caravaggio. She credits Jennifer Packer, one of her professors at RISD, with encouraging the study of renaissance painting.{{cite web |title=Artist Talk with Sasha Gordon at Soho Beach House |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouJ11zo2qDc |website=Youtube | date=7 December 2023 |publisher=Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami |access-date=8 December 2023}}

Oil and molding paste on canvas, {{convert|6|×|9|ft|m}}. In this painting, Gordon presents herself in many forms and a range of affective states. Its cool tones and rich blues are used to create a surreal and magical feeling. While some renditions of the artist frolic in the water, another proudly chops wood besides several smoking and drinking. The painting offered Gordon the ability to reflect and heal from her experiences "as a lesbian Asian girl growing up in a white, upper-middle-class New York suburb."{{Cite web|title=Six queer figurative painters are reimagining intimacy in their work.|url=https://powysartsforum.org.uk/six-queer-figurative-painters-are-reimagining-intimacy-in-their-work/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213065622/https://powysartsforum.org.uk/six-queer-figurative-painters-are-reimagining-intimacy-in-their-work/ | website=Powys Arts Forum | archive-date=2021-12-13 | access-date=2021-12-13|language=en-GB}}

Oil on canvas, {{convert|72|×|48|×|2.25|in|cm|0}}. This large self-portrait shows Gordon grinning wildly while playing a violin, an unseen viewer peering through the window. Playing with the model minority stereotype, Gordon pushes viewers to question their biases and to address the pressures of the white gaze and the stereotypes it engenders.{{Cite web|last1=Wong|first1=Harley| date=2021-06-07|title=Sasha Gordon's Perturbing Paintings of Recreation|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/sasha-gordon-perturbing-paintings-1234595010/|access-date=2021-12-13|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US}}

Oil on canvas, {{convert|3|×|6|ft|m}}. These pieces face each other across a room – one self-portrait draws her arrow toward the opposing painting, where another resignedly and anxiously offers a thumbs up, apple on head and missed arrows at her feet. At war with herself and "catching viewers in the crossfire," Gordon implicates those gazing upon her body.

Oil on canvas, {{convert|5|×|6|ft|m}}. This work is one of the most pronounced of a series that Gordon executed in 2017 as she transitioned from her early hyperrealistic work to her signature works featuring her body. This series of transitional works showed Gordon as a latex dummy. Asked about this painting in a 2018 interview, Gordon stated:

In my recent work, I have this figure, sometimes multiple, in a black, latex, plastic suit that represents my anxiety and depression, personifying it. A large part of my anxiety is my fear of death...In this piece, I am faking my death, to escape reality.{{cite web |last1=Hudnut |first1=Conor |title=Sasha Gordon's paintings are heavily steeped in her exploration of identity |url=http://amadeusmag.com/blog/sasha-gordon-paintings-steeped-identity/ |website=Amadeus |date=16 January 2018 |access-date=20 May 2023}}

• Hugger (2023), Whitney Museum New York, New York {{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/69153 |website=Whitney Museum of American Art |access-date=26 June 2025}}
• Princess (2023), Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX {{cite web |title=DMA Collection |url=https://dma.org/art/collection/object/5359191 |website=Dallas Museum of Art |access-date=23 April 2025}}
• My Friends Will Be Me (2022), Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York {{cite web |title=WOMEN IN THE ARTS: Step Inside Collector Carla Shen's Colorful Home |url=https://www.newcube.art/article/women-in-the-arts-step-inside-collector-carla-shens-colorful-home?utm_campaign=feed&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=later-linkinbio |website=newcube |access-date=30 August 2024}}{{cite web |title=Sasha Gordon |url=https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/sasha-gordon |website=David Zwirner |access-date=19 September 2024}}
• Almost a Very Rare Thing (2022), Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford, California{{cite web |title=Cantor Arts Center – Almost a Very Rare Thing |url=https://cantorcollection.stanford.edu/objects-1/info?query=mfs%20all%20%22sasha%20gordon%22&sort=0 |website=Cantor Arts Center |access-date=29 May 2023}}
• Mood Ring (2022) Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland{{cite web |title=Baltimore Museum of Art Official Instagram Page |url=https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpss9lEvxGm/ |website=Instagram |access-date=29 May 2023}}{{Registration required | date=May 2023}}
• Sore Loser (2022) Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, Maine{{cite web |title=OMAA Collection |url=https://ogunquitmuseumofamericanart.collection.veevartapp.com/artists/sasha-gordon/artworks/clone-of-persian-knots |website=Ogunquit Museum of American Art |access-date=23 April 2025}}
• Campfire (2021), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California {{cite web |title=Hammer Contemporary Collection |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/collections/hammer-contemporary-collection |website=Hammer Museum |date=26 March 2023 |access-date=29 May 2023}}
• Mirror (2021), The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, Texas{{cite web |title=Sasha Gordon: Mirror |url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/150691/mirror?ctx=9b9c787e87aa050cb26eb9350fab9f52b38f70d4&idx=3 |website=Museum of Fine Arts Houston}}
• Concert Mistress (2021), ICA Miami, Miami, Florida{{cite web |title=Concert Mistress |url=https://icamiami.org/collection/concert-mistress-2021/ |website=ICA Miami |access-date=29 May 2023}}
• Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Bentonville, Arkansas

• Yue Minjun

• [https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/sasha-gordon Sasha Gordon at David Zwirner Gallery]
• [https://www.matthewbrowngallery.com/artists/sasha-gordon Sasha Gordon at Matthew Brown Gallery]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Sacha}}

Category:American artists of Asian descent

Category:American LGBTQ people of Asian descent

Category:American portrait painters

Category:American women of Asian descent

Category:Artists from the Bronx

Category:Living people

Category:1998 births

Category:Painters from New York (state)

Category:People from Somers, New York

Category:Rhode Island School of Design alumni

Category:21st-century American artists

Category:21st-century American painters

Category:American LGBTQ artists

Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent

Category:21st-century American women painters