Sarah Leuchtner: Processing Skies Past

OS Projects is pleased to present Processing Skies Past featuring work by Chicago artist Sarah Leuchtner.

Sarah Leuchtner’s work explores memory, loss and transformation through a painterly lens while reflecting on what it means to be an artist in a post-internet era. In Processing Skies Past, Leuchtner convenes her enigmatic alphabet of invented shapes with an expansive range of studio and industrial materials—from paint and collage to zip ties and chain link fencing—to make sense of a year marked by profound grief but also love, friendship and opportunity.

A central motif in the exhibit is a chain link gate through which the artist passes each day on her way to and from her workspace. Leuchtner has adopted the gate’s diamond pattern as a formal device to warp the rectilinear grids that structure her works. The gate also functions as a mark- making tool: the artist placed it on top of several works-in-progress, then spray painted the object, leaving a spectral image of the chain link pattern on her surfaces.

Two pivotal works in the show feature the gate fully integrated with a collage sandwiched between plexiglass and fastened to the galvanized wire with zip ties. In a corollary act, Leuchtner has installed a collage between plexiglass on a chain link fence across the street from her studio. A photograph of the installation (which will remain on the fence until it deteriorates or is removed by the property owner) is included in the exhibit.

Embracing the material characteristics and conceptual possibilities of her surroundings allows Leuchtner to reflect upon, channel and process the major changes and emotional intensity of her past year. As she moves and manipulates her materials through time—from outside to inside, then back outside again—she mimics the way in which a consequential event is experienced, processed internally, and output into the world.

About the Artist

Sarah Leuchtner is a Chicago-based contemporary artist working in painting, drawing and sculpture. Leuchtner received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. She has had exhibitions at Lawrence and Clark Gallery, Hans Gallery, Bianca Bova Gallery and

Northeastern Illinois University, all in Chicago, and has also shown her work at NADA Chicago (2020) and Expo Chicago (2022.) She has exhibited in New York at Below Grand Gallery (formerly Superdutchess Gallery) and at the International Centre for the Arts in Monte Castello, Italy. In 2020, Leuchtner was included in a show at The CICA Museum of Contemporary Art in South Korea. Recent solo exhibitions include Midnight Mirage at Belong Gallery (Chicago) in 2022 and Sequential Escapes at Goldfinch Gallery (Chicago) in 2023. Leuchtner’s work is permanently featured at L7 Chicago and the United Club ORD Collection.