Exhibitions

Sara Kathryn Arledge: Serene for the Moment discloses the brilliance of one singular artist who never should have been forgotten.
— Artillery Magazine

Eclectic, visionary work... Serene for the Moment cracks open the canon, making space for spectacular night blooms.
— Los Angeles Times

A stunning example of exhibition as advocacy.
— Hyperallergic

A veritable marriage of painting and filmmaking
— CARLA

In this exhibition, abstraction is an entry point to consider daily encounters marked by abundance, loss, transcendence, and a dream-like passage of time. An under-recognized painter and innovator of mid-20th century experimental cinema, Sara Kathryn Arledge (1911-1998) was a prolific artist who emphasized the eerie in the mundane and the disorienting in the beautiful. Arledge worked at the margins of art history, shaping her practice with idiosyncratic personal myth. She is considered a pioneer of ciné-dance (dance made uniquely by and for the medium of film) and was one of the first to film dance movement to “extend the nature of painting to include time.” The exhibition includes over 60 of Arledge's vivid works on paper, seven short films, and a selection of hand-painted glass transparencies. The work quietly suggests that subjective, “alternative” normals are equally legitimate.

Exhibition Catalogue

Now available for purchase, this first extended monograph on Sara Kathryn Arledge is lavishly illustrated with previously unseen works on paper, hand-painted slides, and film stills, bound in cloth, and features the innovative use of papers of multiple weights, textures, and colors.

Past Public Programs

Livestream: Sara Kathryn Arledge’s Films and Art
Watch filmmaker Kerry Laitala read from Arledge’s memoir Madness in Memory. Exhibition curator Irene Georgia Tsatsos and Los Angeles Filmforum Executive Director Adam Hyman read from a conversation with LAFF founder Terry Cannon.
Recorded on March 14, 2021.

WATCH: Sara Kathryn Arledge Book Launch Event
Watch the virtual launch celebration of Sara Kathryn Arledge: Serene for the Moment, the first extended monograph on the artist produced in conjunction with the 2019 Armory exhibition. The event featureed comments and readings of texts from the catalog by Armory Chief Curator Irene Georgia Tsatsos; authors Sasha Archibald, and Sarah McColl; exhibition images; and an Arledge-inspired art activity by artist Julia O. Bianco.
Recorded on March 11, 2021

Media

Rediscover One of the First Artists Who Choreographed Dance for Film
(Hyperallergic)

Snap Review
(CARLA)

Mental illness and sexism left this artist largely forgotten. A new show restores her place in history
(Los Angeles Times)

Review: Sara Kathryn Arledge
(Artillery Magazine)

Top Ten 2019 LA Shows
(Artillery Magazine)

Sara Kathryn Arledge: Interior Gardens
(LA Filmforum)

Review: A New Book, “Sara Kathryn Arledge: Serene for the Moment,” Shines Light on an Underrecognized, Pioneering Artist
(AEQAI)

#sarakathrynarledge  #armoryexhibitions

Sara Kathryn Arledge: Serene for the Moment has been produced with generous support from the Pasadena Art Alliance, with thanks to the Sara Kathryn Arledge Memorial Trust. In conjunction with the exhibition, a book will be published by Armory Press, an imprint of the Armory, and X Artists Books, with generous support provided by the Hillenburg Family.

Top image: photo by Ian Byers-Gamber.