Anne Sanger is an artist and curator living in Upstate New York with a background in fashion design and illustration. As an abstract artist, Sanger mostly works with pastels, acrylic and oil paintings. Her work has been featured in a number of group shows in both New York City and Upstate in the Hudson Valley. Her debut solo show, which served as the grand opening of Pinkwater Gallery, of which she is the founder and curator, was a hit success. Learn more about Anne and her work in this week’s Maker Monday.
Pastel on paper is one of the main mediums Anne works with. Non-objective in nature, shapes contrast with freeform curved lines in this painting, which create a play with color and form.
Andrew Joseph: If you could be any animal in the world, what animal would you be and why?
Anne Sanger: I would be a tiger. Notorious loners, tigers lope around in the jungle by themselves most of their lives, only seeking out others to procreate. Like artists that way, tigers.
AJ: If you had a superpower, what would it be?
AS: If I could have the power to instantly speak every single language in the world fluently on command, it would be incredible! I speak French (though not fluently) and just the struggle over decades to master that one language has been discouraging, but not enough to make me stop trying. If the superpower existed to communicate flawlessly in any language, imagine what the world would be like! (Yes, I know there is Google Translate, but it adds a little too much friction to the process to make an easy, substantive conversation possible).
“Wild Women” is the name of this oil and oil stick painting. Deep blues contrast with orange tints to create a dynamic color field.
AJ: What are three words to describe where you live?
AS: Bucolic, peaceful, productive. I have lived full-time in a small town in Upstate New York near Woodstock for around three years now and I don’t have any regrets leaving New York City behind. I actually had moved up from Brooklyn to open Pinkwater Gallery in Kingston before the pandemic so I was in a good spot when things went haywire. Everyone knows the Hudson Valley is ‘bucolic’ and ‘peaceful’, but would you believe it, it’s also ‘productive’? I find living here very productive as a painter… I make much more work now than when I had a full-time job in the city and spent an hour commuting to the garment district every day. The ease of life here is a joy for creative people, as the exodus from the city in recent years has shown.
AJ: How would you define your work in three words?
AS: Luscious. Chromatic. Shimmering. In recent years I have adopted a style of painting, drawing and fashion illustration that relies heavily on the use of beautiful colors in lush combinations. Whether working in pastels, oil paints or even on an iPad, I adore diving into a deep pool of passionate colors. I did a recent series of pastel drawings inspired by the great Mexican architect Luis Barragán, and my most recent paintings have a shimmering, aquatic quality where hints of light rise to the top.
“Calliope” is another one of Anna’s oil and oil stick paintings. Rich bright reds are contrasted with scrubby blue and orange areas.
AJ: What are three binge-worthy TV shows/Movies that you’ve been watching?
AS: Starting its fourth season this summer, I have been obsessed with “Westworld” – both for its excellent production design and the creepiness of its premise – since the beginning. I highly recommend “Station Eleven“, which somehow manages to be even better as a television series than as a book, due in large part to its mesmerizing lead performer Mackenzie Davis. And for honest-to-goodness wit and a refreshing peek into family life not seen usually on TV, I loved “Better Things” starring Pamela Adlon, who stole a bit from her own life to produce a kooky take on the usually cringe genre of the family situation comedy.
AJ: What do you find yourself daydreaming about most these days?
AS: I daydream about new paintings I will make, places I will go (an affirmed city person in terms of travel, I long to go back to Paris, then Mexico City is next on the list, and I will visit Tokyo before I die!), and freedoms for people to live their lives and love whom they choose to love without meddling from politicians.
About the Maker | Anne Sanger (b. 1970, US) is an artist and curator living in Upstate New York. Her work incorporates striking color combinations and strong line, as influenced by her background in fashion as a designer and illustrator. Her development as an abstract artist has led her to explore pastel drawing, liquid acrylic works on paper as well as larger-scale acrylic and oil paintings. She is currently working on multiple series of 36” x 36” oil paintings that yearn simply to be beautiful. Her work has been featured in a number of group shows in both New York City and Upstate. Her debut solo show, which also served as the grand opening of Pinkwater Gallery, was an examination of her alarm and grief around climate change called How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Climate Change. Anne’s work can be found on her personal website www.studioparapluie.com as well as on www.pinkwatergallery.com and at 1stDibs.com alongside fellow gallery artists.
In her capacity as the founder of Pinkwater Gallery in Kingston, NY, Anne is also active in promoting the work of other established female artists living and working in the Hudson Valley and Catskills region. Pinkwater Gallery serves as a resource in the Hudson Valley for designers and homeowners, especially those who are interested in supporting local artists, looking for contemporary art for the home. Anne curates work by women artists to appear in the gallery’s welcoming, home-like environment that seeks to eliminate the intimidation factor facing first-time buyers and young collectors. Influenced by her time in fashion, the gallery operates like a ‘boutique’ for art, with ‘collections’ changing seasonally – featuring new work by a stable of artists, plus new artists introduced each season – where purchases can be made in-store (and taken home the same day) or online.
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