Sarah FitzSimons is a visual artist whose project-based work typically involves a sculpture, installed outdoors or indoors, which interacts with and derives meaning from its surroundings. She interprets and reframes this process through photography, video, and storytelling, and much of the work seeks to connect our constructed culture and daily lives with the wider patterns of nature. FitzSimons works first and foremost in and with three-dimensional space, and a core question that drives her research is: how can an object affect the space around it? Just as the form and bulk of a mountain range creates its own weather, how can art alter the space (including physical, emotional, aesthetic, social, and psychological space) around it?
FitzSimons’ work has been exhibited in solo and two-person shows at Casa da Inquisição, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal; Vadehavsfestival, Mandø, Denmark; I-Park, East Haddam, CT; SoFA Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN; and EnView Gallery, Long Beach, CA. Recent group exhibitions include shows at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI; Extéril Gallery, Porto, Portugal; International Forest Art Path, Darmstadt, Germany; Chazen Museum of Art, Madison WI; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; and Maus Habitos, Porto, Portugal. She is the recipient of an Efroymson Contemporary Art Fellowship, Indianapolis, IN (2013); Research Grants from University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011–2015); and a Fast Track Grant, Ohio Arts Council (2010). FitzSimons received her B.A. and B.F.A. from Ohio University and her M.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 2011, she has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as assistant professor in sculpture.
