Sarah Frost is a contemporary artist who examines our culture through the accumulation and re-presentation of cast-off consumer objects. She scavenges at garage sales or in garbage bins and then aims to create a second life for these selected objects that carry the traces of their previous lives. She finds these traces of the personal left on these objects – evidence of habits, experience, emotion and personal taste – poignant in the absence of their owners and any further use. In her Qwerty installations, she re-uses keyboard keys to cover surfaces, creating a mosaic-like effect. These pieces of obsolete communication technology, discarded by an array of users from individuals and small businesses to financial institutions, government offices, and Fortune 500 companies, often cover entire walls or rooms. Each key has a unique history and bears the imprint of the thousands of taps by countless users. Her works convey both the material effects of consumer culture and its connection to human mortality.
Sarah Frost was born in Detroit and grew up in Rochester, NY. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Frost’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally including exhibitions at Laumeier Sculpture Park, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Telfair Museum, CODA Museum, Pearl Fincher Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Balzar Art Projects, PPOW Gallery, Mad Art Gallery, and Art Miami. She has also received numerous awards and grants, including the inaugural Riverfront Times’ Visual Arts Mastermind award in 2008 and grants from Arts in Transit and the Missouri Arts Council. She also received the Great Rivers Biennial 2010, a grant funded by the Gateway Foundation including a solo exhibition at Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis.
Frost currently lives and works in St. Louis.