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