About
SARA SISUN
Sara Sisun is a visual artist based in Boulder, Colorado. She received a BA in Art Practice from Stanford University, an MFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute under a full tuition fellowship, and an MA in Art History from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Grant and the Alpine Fellowship. Her paintings are included in the public collections of Kaiser Permanente and in the private collection of Soledad O’Brien. She currently teaches as Head of Foundations and Fine Arts at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.
sara.sisun@gmail.com
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND COLLECTIONS
“Something Worth Keeping,”
Lazaretto, Menorca, Spain, 2023
Biennial Faculty and Staff Exhibition,
Phillip J. Steele Gallery, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, 2023
“Celebrating the Body,”
Phillip J. Steele Gallery, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, 2022
Takt Art Berlin,
Takt Gallery Group Show, Berlin, Germany, 2018
Art Students League of New York, Annual Juried Exhibition,
2014
“Valentine,” Solo show at UGallery pop-up space,
San Francisco, California 2012
Selected for display in Facebook offices,
Palo Alto, California, 2011
“Apocalypse Nude,”
Solo Exhibition, Treehouse Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2011
“Vernissage”
San Francisco, California, 2011
“Provisional”
Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2010
“Flesh was the Reason”
Group show at Swell Gallery, San Francisco, California 2010
“Tondos”
Group show at Dogpatch Studios 2010
“Please remove me from your mailing list”
SUB Gallery, Stanford, California, 2009
“Giant Babies”
Project One, San Francisco, California, 2011
“Potential for Growth and Decay”
SUB Gallery, Stanford University, 2009
“Self Portraits in Photocopier”
Stanford University, 2009
“Corporate collections at Republic Plaza”
Denver, Colorado, 2005
“Art Students League of Denver Summer Art Market”
1998-2009
Kaiser Permanente Corporate Collection
Delta Dental Corporate Collection
Soledad O’Brian, CNN, Private Collection
EDUCATION
University of Colorado, Boulder, MA Art History, 2018
Certificates in College Teaching and Critical Theory
San Francisco Art Institute, MFA Painting, 2011
Full Tuition Fellowship
Stanford University, BA Art Practice, 2009
AWARDS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Hampstead Art Society People’s Choice
Award Nomination, London, UK, 2023
Audrey Beard Scholarship for Graduate Study in Art History
University of Colorado, Boulder, 2017
The Alpine Fellowship
Recipient for Art Practice, Venice, Italy, 2016
Kent Summer School in Critical Theory Merit Scholarship
For attendance at Summer School in Paris, 2016, 2017
The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant.
The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, Canada, 2010
My Art Space, 1s t Prize Scholarship
Palo Alto, California, 2009
Rita B. Giese Award for Art Practice
Stanford University, Stanford, California, 2009
JE Wallace Sterling Award for Academic Achievement
Top 5% graduating class
Best of Show
Art Students League of Denver Summer Art Market, 2009
The Angel Grant
Stanford University, Stanford California, 2008
Best Under 30
Allied Arts Award, Denver, Colorado, 2005
TEACHING
Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Adjunct Instructor of Art, Departments of Illustration, Foundations, and Liberal Arts, 2015- present.
Courses taught:
Observational Drawing, Foundations level
Studio Seminar, Methods of Inquiry, Foundations Level
Life Drawing I, Foundations level
Life Drawing II Foundations level
Life Drawing III: Human Anatomy, 3000 Level, Illustration elective
Life Drawing IV, 4000 Level, Illustration elective
Life Painting I 2000 level, Illustration elective
Life Painting II 2000 level, Illustration elective
Life Painting III, Illustration elective
Still Life Painting, 4000 level, Illustration elective
Landscape Painting Online, 4000 level, Illustration elective
Freshman Portfolio Review, 2000 level Illustration
History of American Illustration, Department of Liberal Arts
Putney Student Travel Precollege Seminar leader, 2015- present.
Courses taught:
“Medieval to Surreal: Art History in Barcelona” Summer 2023, 2024, Barcelona, Spain
“Renaissance Art and Architecture” Summer 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, Florence, Italy
“Art of the Sketch” Summer 2016, 2017 in Florence, Italy
“Art History in Tuscany” Summer 2022 Siena, Italy
University of California, Irvine, Graduate teaching in the department of Visual Studies.
Courses taught:
“Image Collision” discussion section leader, 2020
“Medieval and Renaissance” discussion section leader, 2021
“Sea Sense: Land, Sea, Environment” teaching assistant to Lyle Massey, 2021
University of Colorado, Boulder, 2016-2017. Lead Graduate Teaching Assistant.
World Art I and World Art II taught by Kirk Ambrose.
San Francisco Art Institute, “Painting Permutations,” Precollege 2011, 2012, 2013
“Life Size Figure Drawing,” 2014
“Figurative Art in a Contemporary Context” 2011
San Francisco Art Institute Adult Continuing Education:
Bay Area Classical Atelier, San Carlos, California Studio Assistant and Instructor.
Courses taught:
“Painting the Figure in an Interior Setting,”
“Alla Prima”
“Life Drawing: Human Anatomy.”
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND SYMPOSIA
“Astral Poetics”
Co-organized interdisciplinary graduate student conference at the University of California, Irvine, April 7-8, 2022.
“Sea Sense: Blue Humanities and the Early Modern Imaginary.”
Graduate Student Conference join with UCLA, “The Sea: Mobility, Ingenuity, and Ecology in the Early Modern World” UC Davis Center for Marine Biology, Bodega Bay, California, May 2022
“Giovanni Morelli: Comparative Anatomy, the ‘science’ of attribution, and racialism”
selected to present at the Front Range Art Annual Art History Student Symposium, 2017