Sam Anderson
Sam Anderson
Born 1982 in Los Angeles, California
Lives and works in New York
Sam Anderson is a sculptor whose work explores the fragile interplay between memory and the material world, as much through language as through form. Her rigorously arranged, often minimal compositions combine figures and objects that feel both intimately familiar and unsettlingly existential. Using materials such as clay, metal, plastic, resin, reclaimed wood, and fabric alongside everyday objects, Anderson constructs scenes that oscillate between the poetic and the uncanny, humor and pathos. Drawing from the visual language of American literature and cinema, personal history, and the slippages of linguistic play, Anderson’s work probes how meaning is constructed and deconstructed. Her sculptures inhabit the sad, often absurd space between expectation and desire, functioning like prototypes—she believes the prototype of an idea is often more sincere and open-ended than its final result. By reconfiguring interchangeable, everyday materials, she uncovers the latent narratives embedded within the mundane.
EDUCATION
| 2010 | MFA, Yale University, New Haven, CT |
| 2008 | BFA, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY |
SELECTED SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
| 2022 | Gaylord Apartments, Los Angeles, CA Lunch Hour, Tanya Leighton, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2020 | I Never Loved Your Mind, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany |
| 2019 | Contemporary Sculpture: Sam Anderson & Michael Dean, Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL |
| 2018 | A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing, Chapter NY, New York, NY The Great Assumption, JOAN, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2017 | Big Bird, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany The Park, SculptureCenter, New York, NY |
| 2016 | The Lonely Bull, Rowhouse Project, Baltimore, MD |
| 2015 | Endless Love, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany Tally’s Folly, Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin, Ireland Grandfather Clock, Vanity East, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2014 | The Mound Builders, Off Vendome, Düsseldorf, Germany |
| 2013 | Sam Anderson, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY Flowers and Money, Chapter NY, New York, NY Shuffle Puck Café, Bed-Stuy Love Affair, New York, NY |
| 2012 | Dream Chasers Never Sleep, Night Gallery (Annex), Los Angeles, CA |
| 2011 | At the Sign of the Pulsating Heart, West Street Gallery at NADA Hudson, New York, NY Employment, Primetime, New York, NY |
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
| 2023 | Passages, Martos Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2022 | Breathing Water, Drinking Air, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany |
| 2021 | 3.0, Chapter NY, New York, NY |
| 2020 | Paper, Chapter NY, New York, NY It could have been easy but it was still nice, Mother Culture, Berlin, Germany |
| 2019 | Butterflies on a Cruise Ship, Kai Matsumiya, New York, NY Pig Latin in Quicksand, curated by Andrew Ross, Clima Gallery, Milan, Italy |
| 2018 | Objects Like Us, The Aldrich Contemporary Museum of Art, Ridgefield, CT Nothing Will Be As Before, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany |
| 2017 | Salon Vogue, New Bretagne Belle Air, Essen, Germany A Show Yet to be Titled, 83 Pitt Street Gallery, New York, NY Sechs Richtige, Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Sammlungen, Donaueschingen, Germany |
| 2016 | ICHTS, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany Daydream from 2013, CANADA, New York, NY |
| 2015 | Robert Bordo, Sam Anderson with Michel Auder, Bortolami, New York, NY Everybody Knows (Or Should), Martos Gallery, New York, NY Anemic Cinecat: International Cat Art Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY Greater New York 2015, MoMA PS1, New York, NY All back in the skull together, Maccarone Gallery, New York, NY White Columns Annual, curated by Cleopatra’s, White Columns, New York, NY |
| 2014 | Another, Once Again, Many Times More, Martos Gallery, Summer Location, E. Marion, New York, NY In Free Circulation, Mother’s tankstation, Dublin, Ireland Warm side of Zero, Overduin & Co, Los Angeles, CA Die Geister, die ich rief werd’ ich nun nicht los, Cookie Butcher, Antwerp, Belgium International Woman’s Day, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA That Singing Voice, Marta Cervera Gallery, Madrid, Spain Morning and Evening Asylum, Tanya Leighton/Off Vendome, Berlin/ Düsseldorf, Germany Objects of Thin Air, Foxy Production, New York, NY |
| 2013 | Under the BQE, M/L Artspace, New York, NY Black Cake, Team Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2012 | How’s Your Wall?, Artist Curated Projects, Los Angeles, CA Tabula Rasa, Curious Matter, Jersey City, NJ Group Show, West Street Gallery, New York, NY Halo Africa, Gallery D.O.R., Brussels, Belgium You Told Me The Other Night, West Street Gallery, New York, NY First Among Equals, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA Video Screening Part 2, West Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom |
| 2011 | Chat D’Oeuvres Part 2, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY Touchy Feely, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA Heads with Tails, Harris Liebermann, New York, NY The Golden Ass, Annie Wharton, Los Angeles, CA Screening with Michel Auder/Sam Anderson & Michael Stickrod, Soloway, New York, NY Proposal For A Floor, 1500 Broadway, New York, NY |
| 2010 | Untitled, Newman Popiashvili Gallery, New York, NY New Insight, Art Chicago, Chicago, IL Salt Mine, Primetime, New York, NY MFA Thesis, Green Hall Gallery, New Haven, CT |
| 2009 | Chat D’Oeuvres Part 1, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY Performance Night, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT |
| 2008 | 2008 MFA First Year Show, Green Hall Gallery, New Haven, CT Poetry Club, curated by Fia Backström, White Columns, New York, NY |
RESIDENCIES
| 2016 | Fürstenberg Zeitgenössisch Residency Program, Heiligenberg/Donaueschingen, Germany |
PUBLICATIONS
| 2021 | 15 Drawings, artist book, Hassla |
| 2018 | Sam Anderson: The Lonely Bull, In Rowhouse Project: A Guide to Buying and Renovating Rowhouses in Baltimore, edited by Lucie Fontaine, 375 – 425, Hassla |
| 2017 | Sam Anderson Monograph, Mousse Publishing |
| 2015 | Sam Anderson + Daniel Boszhokov and Sam Anderson + Uri Aran, In ==#2, ed. by Matt Keegan, Capricous Publishing |
SELECTED PRESS
PICK OF THE WEEK: Sam Anderson, Lauren Guilford, Artillery Magazine, July 2022
What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week, Will Heinrich, The New York Times, October 5, 2018
Critic’s Pick: Sam Anderson, Zack Hatfield, Artforum.com, October 2018
Sam Anderson at JOAN, Simone Krug, Contemporary Art Review, March 15, 2018
Sam Anderson at SculptureCenter, Elena Tavecchia, Mousse Magazine, Issue 57, February/March 2017
At Greater New York Rising art Stars Meet the Old School, Holland Cotter, The New York Times, October 2015
PS1’s Sprawling Greater New York Show Broadens It’s Purview with Mixed Results, Andrew Russeth, Artnews, 9 October, 2015
Sam Anderson ‘Tally’s Folly’, Mother’s Tankstation, Sara O’Brien, Paper Visual Art, August 2015
Sam Anderson – Talley’s Folly, Olen Bajarias, lecool dublin, April 2015
Sam Anderson, David Matorin, Modern Painters, April 2015
15 Group Shows Not to Miss, Roberta Smith, The New York Times, 29 January 2015
Andrew Russeth, Christopher Boolen, Interviewmagazine.com, 8 December 2014
The Year in, and Beyond in the Galleries, Andrew Russeth, GalleristNY. com, 10 December 2013
Sam Anderson: Flowers and Money at Chapter NY, Andrew Russeth, GalleristNY.com, 10 December 2013
Bosko Blagojevic, “Critic’s Picks: Sam Anderson”, Artforum.com, December 2013
To Do November 13-20, 2013, Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine, 18 November 2013
Sam Anderson, Shuffle Puck Cafe at Bed-Stuy Love Affair, Andrew Russeth, 16 Miles of String, 16 July 2013
A Blank Slate and Some Curious Matter, Brendan S. Carroll, Hyperallergic, 4 September 2012
Critics’ Picks: First Among Equals, Carmen Winant, Artforum.com, July 2012