Her practice is concerned with the role photographic technology plays in visually classifying human identity, knowledge, and memory in archives. She has exhibited extensively throughout Australia in institutions such as the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Monash Gallery of Art, the Australian Centre for Photography and internationally, in the Staged Program at Photofairs, Shanghai. Her work is held in private and public collections, such as the Art Gallery of NSW and has appeared in the Age, the Guardian and on The Mix, ABC. She was the 2022 recipient of the John and Margaret Baker Fellowship in the National Photography Prize, Murray Art Museum, Albury. Sara is Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication in the Faculty of Design and Architecture at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Sara Oscar is an Australian artist of eurasian descent. She works with photography and the moving image.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy, University of Sydney (2008)
Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours Class 1), University of Sydney (2002)
Scholarships and Awards
John and Margaret Baker Fellowship, National Photography Prize, Murray Art Museum Albury, 2022
CCP Award for Excellence in Photomedia, Centre for Contemporary Photography, 2010
Finalist, National Photography Prize, Albury Regional Gallery, 2009
Finalist Helen Lempriere Travelling Scholarship Exhibition, Artspace, 2002
Australian Postgraduate Award, 2006
International Exchange Scholarship, University of Sydney, 2005
Solo exhibitions
2017 Reality is a hard word, Kensington Contemporary, Sydney
2016 What it is, BUS Projects, Melbourne
2015 From here to eternity, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2015 The mobility of happiness, MOP Projects, Sydney
2012 The law of the series, MOP Projects, Sydney
2007 Into this wild abyss, SCA Gallery, Sydney
Selected group exhibitions
2022 National Photography Prize Exhibition, Murray Art Museum Albury
2021 We will all eventually return to the Earth (curated by Talia Smith), Ballarat Foto
2021 The Other Portrait, SCA & UTS Gallery, Sydney (curated by Julie Rrap & Cherine Fahd)
2021 To Resound Unbound, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Fitzroy
2021 Photo2021 International Photography Festival, Melbourne
2019 Unknown Scripture, Delmar Gallery, Ashfield, Sydney (curated by Liam Garstang, Sydney College of the Arts Gallery)
2017 Staged, Photofairs Shanghai, Shanghai Exhibition Centre, Shanghai, China
2017 Under the sun, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne (curated by Claire Monneraye, Australian Centre for Photography)
2017 Under the sun, State Library New South Wales, (curated by Claire Monnaraye, Australian Centre for Photography)
2017 An elegy to apertures (curated by Isobel Parker Philip), Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2016 Photo+Graphy, Interlude Gallery, Sydney
2013 Dress code: The world’s longest bar (with Mary Teague), Palimpsest Biennial #9, Mildura, Victoria
2013 Breathing room, MOP Projects (curated by Jaime Tsai), Sydney
2012 Photographs arranged in series (curated by Anne Ferran), Sutton Projects, Melbourne
2011 The motel project, Palimpsest Festival #8, Mildura, Victoria
2010 CCP salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2007 Constructed realms, National Photography Prize, Albury Regional Gallery
2004 Helen Lempriere travelling scholarship exhibition, Artspace, Sydney
2004 The containers project, Next Wave Festival, Federation Square, Melbourne
2003 I’m cracking skulls, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney
2003 Resistance is useless, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney
2003 informé, The Australia Centre, Berlin, Germany
1999 Reflections of the other side, PICA, Perth
Commissions and collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Collection Jan van Schaik
2021 Photo2021 International Photography Festival
2018 Staged, Photofairs, Shanghai
2016 Australian Centre for Photography
2013 Corbett Lyon Architects
2013 & 2011 Arts Mildura
Bibliography
Daniel Palmer & Katrina Sluis, “Photography after AI,” Artlink, 1 August 2023
Kerrie O'Brien, “Forget Dupain's Sunbaker, the beach represents atrocities as much as a playground,” The Age, 12 May 2017
James Valentine, The Mix, ABC TV, Episode 8, 2017
Claire Monneraye, “In Conversation with Sara Oscar,” Photofile, Issue 98, 2017
Peter Munro, “Sun sets on Max Dupain's Sunbaker as artists find new Australian icons by the beach,” Sydney Morning Herald, 9 February 2017
Author unknown, “Max Dupain’s Sunbaker: Australian artists respond to celebrated photograph – in pictures,” The Guardian, 8 February,2017
James Aksman Glosz, “A World of Stability and Chaos,” Rochford Street Review, July 19 2015
Penelope Woods, Mobility of Happiness, catalogue essay, MOP Projects, 2015
Will Cox, “Four Photography Exhibitions to See in Melbourne Now,” Broadsheet, 26 June, 2015
Anne Marsh, Barbara Bolt, “From the Experimental to the Experiential”, Eyeline, Issue 81, 2014
Georgina Cole, “Private Places,” Breathing Room, exhibition catalogue, MOP Projects, Sydney, 2013
Anne Ferran, Photographs arranged in series, exhibition catalogue, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2013