Counting the Days Until I See You Again: Sarah Klein
We are excited to present art by Sarah Klein on view in our downtown Berkeley Milvia window space.
Counting the Days Until I See You Again
My work explores themes of loss, remembrance, connection, and resilience. In a world marked by continual change, uncertainty, and collective grief, I am interested in how we carry memories forward and find ways to remain connected to one another. Loss can be overwhelming, arriving not as a singular event but as an ongoing accumulation of personal, environmental, and societal experiences. Rather than seeking resolution, my work creates space to acknowledge these experiences, to grieve and remember, and honor what has been lost.
Garlands have become an important form within my practice. Found across cultures and traditions, garlands function as adornment, offerings, commemorations, and expressions of appreciation. I am drawn to their ability to connect separate elements into a larger whole. Constructed from screen printed imagery, paper cutouts, and layered materials, my garlands serve as gestures of remembrance and connection – linking people, places, memories, and experiences.
Much of the imagery in this work originated from newspaper headlines, photographs and my personal archives from the Covid-19 pandemic. Through processes of repetition, mirroring, and accumulation, individual images dissolve into larger visual structures. Meaning emerges not from any single image, but from the relationships formed between them. The imagery is intentionally layered, repeated, abstracted, and overlaid until no individual image dominates. Instead, the work becomes a dense visual collage and an attempt to hold multiple experiences, emotions, and histories simultaneously.
The botanical reliefs are hand-shadow photographs that I have abstracted. The photos were taken during the Northern California firestorms. These images are touchstones within my practice, reflecting broader cycles of loss, adaption, and renewal. As habitats change, species disappear, communities are displaced and the world continues to transform, resilience emerges alongside grief.
As an artist, the creative impulse itself is an act of resilience. Through printmaking, animation and sculptural forms, I seek to create spaces for reflection, connection, and remembrance. My work honors loss while also acknowledging the transformation that follows, recognizing that grief and renewal are often intertwined.
Sarah Klein is a San Francisco-based visual artist. Informed by a decade of working in stop-motion animation, she expands on the language of movement within print-based glass works. Klein earned her MFA from Mills College in Oakland. Her work has been presented at the Exploratorium, Mill Valley Film Festival, Southern Exposure, and Telematic in the San Francisco Bay Area; Anthology Film Archives, and Transmitter Gallery in New York; Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Festival Tweetakt in Utrecht, and General Public in Berlin. She has been awarded residencies at Djerassi Resident Artist Program, M.H. de Young Museum, Jentel Artist Residency, and the Ucross Foundation. She has received awards from Kala Art Institute, Headlands Center for the Arts, Trust For Mutual Understanding, and Zellerbach Family Foundation. Most recently she worked in partnership with the Jim Campbell Studio to create a site- specific animation for the top of the Salesforce Tower.
