Artist Profile

Sarah Albisser

Sarah Albisser was born in Switzerland. She completed her studies as a contemporary dancer in 1996 at the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York. Her career as an independent dancer and choreographer includes founding the dance theatre company Waterproof in 2001. The company has had successful performances in Switzerland, India and New Zealand with awards in 2002 and 2003 for her work.

She received a certificate in art from Farbmuehle in Lucerne, Switzerland in 2006 and also completed a one year painting course at the Art Station in Auckland, New Zealand. She has had exhibitions of her work in Auckland, Waiheke Island and Wellington where she lives now.

"I have been experimenting with black and white portraits over the past seven years. Fascination with faces, expressions, body and gesture has been a life long experience for me. Our character is reflected through small, individual, unique but significant gestures which can change over time or sometimes even get stronger. In the past I have never used images or photos of faces, all my portraits are developed through improvisation.

Working with the same theme over a long period of time has given me a wider view of possibilities. I like to explore this through using different technics and materials. One of them is stitching on loose canvas for instance, to indicate clear lines connecting parts of the body. With unfinished space creating an opportunity to fill in, or not. Another example would be plastic board, it rejects the paint, giving an opportunity to use other tools to get effects which I could not achieve with canvas."