SABRA MOORE ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an artist currently living in Abiquiu, New Mexico. My work is based on re-interpreting family, social, & natural history through the form of painted & sewn wall works, sculptures and artist’s books. My work is a kind of personal archaeology; I see myself as a “literate” granddaughter who has synthesized the quilt-making/ storytelling traditions of my rural grandmothers into new forms.
I resided many years in New York City before moving to New Mexico. I was a longtime member of the Heresies Collective (1982-1991) and President of the NYC/ Women’s Caucus for Art (1980-1982). I am committed to the idea of placing artwork within a social context and have worked with feminist/ political art groups towards that end. Working with other artists or with members of the community has long been a part of my art practice. This can take the form of inviting friends to send me words or bits of materials that I incorporate into my art-making, or through organizing collaborative exhibits based on specific ideas, or through working with school children, as I have done in New Mexico, to create large-scale outdoor public art painted tile mosaics. I recently installed a 9-foot 8-inch mosaic, on the brick façade of a former post office building in Espanola, with tiles painted by 69 adults and children in workshops I conducted over a year. These mosaic projects utilize my skills and aesthetic honed in my studio and create beauty in unexpected venues. I also managed the Espanola Farmers Market for twenty-three years and organized two iterations of The Farm Show, a project that paired artists and farmers and resulted in the creation of thirty-two Farm Story banners.
I have also created photocopier multiple-edition artist’s books as well as unique artist’s book .The books often re-work texts used in the sculptures and take many forms- some are accordion-folded, some sewn, some have painted covers, some have twig bindings, most use altered photos. Many of my artist’s books are in the collections of the Library at the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum.
Barnard College Library and Archives houses Sabra Moore NYC Women’s Art Archive that documents the art and activism that I have chronicled in my book, Openings: A Memoir from the Women’s Art Movement, New York City, 1970- 1992 (New Village Press, 2016). My solo show, WORDY, artworks and artist’s books mostly from the nineteen eighties that use words or stories, was at Barnard College Archive in 2022.
Art for the Future: Artist Call and Central American Solidarity curated by Erina Duggane opened at Tufts University Art Museum in Boston in 2022 and traveled to Albuquerque UNM Art Museum that fall. My collaborative artists’ book, Reconstructed Codex, loaned from my Barnard Archive, and my wall work Renew from Reconstruction Project, were exhibited in both venues. This year, three of my artworks, including an early artist’s book, notes notes and Reverse, a small sculpture, were included in Lucy Lippard: Notes from the Radical Whirlwind at Vladem Contemporary. I also had a public conversation at the Vladem in February with Alexander Terry, the curator of Lucy’s show. One of my paintings was in the show Salt, Sulfur, Mercury at A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, New York this spring. My canoe-sized sculpture, We Are All in the Same Boat, is currently the opening work exhibited in Rooted Strong: Visions of America from New Mexico, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM through early October 2026.
I am an artist currently living in Abiquiu, New Mexico. My work is based on re-interpreting family, social, & natural history through the form of painted & sewn wall works, sculptures and artist’s books. My work is a kind of personal archaeology; I see myself as a “literate” granddaughter who has synthesized the quilt-making/ storytelling traditions of my rural grandmothers into new forms.
I resided many years in New York City before moving to New Mexico. I was a longtime member of the Heresies Collective (1982-1991) and President of the NYC/ Women’s Caucus for Art (1980-1982). I am committed to the idea of placing artwork within a social context and have worked with feminist/ political art groups towards that end. Working with other artists or with members of the community has long been a part of my art practice. This can take the form of inviting friends to send me words or bits of materials that I incorporate into my art-making, or through organizing collaborative exhibits based on specific ideas, or through working with school children, as I have done in New Mexico, to create large-scale outdoor public art painted tile mosaics. I recently installed a 9-foot 8-inch mosaic, on the brick façade of a former post office building in Espanola, with tiles painted by 69 adults and children in workshops I conducted over a year. These mosaic projects utilize my skills and aesthetic honed in my studio and create beauty in unexpected venues. I also managed the Espanola Farmers Market for twenty-three years and organized two iterations of The Farm Show, a project that paired artists and farmers and resulted in the creation of thirty-two Farm Story banners.
I have also created photocopier multiple-edition artist’s books as well as unique artist’s book .The books often re-work texts used in the sculptures and take many forms- some are accordion-folded, some sewn, some have painted covers, some have twig bindings, most use altered photos. Many of my artist’s books are in the collections of the Library at the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum.
Barnard College Library and Archives houses Sabra Moore NYC Women’s Art Archive that documents the art and activism that I have chronicled in my book, Openings: A Memoir from the Women’s Art Movement, New York City, 1970- 1992 (New Village Press, 2016). My solo show, WORDY, artworks and artist’s books mostly from the nineteen eighties that use words or stories, was at Barnard College Archive in 2022.
Art for the Future: Artist Call and Central American Solidarity curated by Erina Duggane opened at Tufts University Art Museum in Boston in 2022 and traveled to Albuquerque UNM Art Museum that fall. My collaborative artists’ book, Reconstructed Codex, loaned from my Barnard Archive, and my wall work Renew from Reconstruction Project, were exhibited in both venues. This year, three of my artworks, including an early artist’s book, notes notes and Reverse, a small sculpture, were included in Lucy Lippard: Notes from the Radical Whirlwind at Vladem Contemporary. I also had a public conversation at the Vladem in February with Alexander Terry, the curator of Lucy’s show. One of my paintings was in the show Salt, Sulfur, Mercury at A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, New York this spring. My canoe-sized sculpture, We Are All in the Same Boat, is currently the opening work exhibited in Rooted Strong: Visions of America from New Mexico, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM through early October 2026.
