Sarah Rowe
EMAIL slr.ssgallery@gmail.com
INSTAGRAM @ladywink
Sarah Rowe is an interdisciplinary artist based in Omaha, Nebraska. She utilizes methods of painting, installation, performance, and Native American ceremony in unconventional ways. Rowe’s work is participatory, a call to action, and re-imagines traditional Indigenous symbology to fit the narrative of today’s global landscape. Rowe was awarded a Harpo Foundation painting fellowship at Vermont Studio Center and residencies with the Union for Contemporary Art, the Great Plains Art Museum, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Nalu Gallery in Mexico. Her work is in the permanent collections of Bates Museum of Art, the Great Plains Art Museum, and Homestead National Park. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Joslyn Art Museum, the Museum of Nebraska Art, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Sheldon Museum of Art, and the National Willa Cather Center. She has a forthcoming solo exhibition at the John Michael Kohler Art Center, fall 2025. She won best in printmaking at the 2021 Nebraska Biennial. A recent project on a very large scale, award-winning Starseeds, is a mural that spans 15 silos in South Omaha. Rowe holds a BA in Studio Art from Webster University, studying in Saint Louis, Missouri, and Vienna, Austria. She is Lakota and an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My work draws from the energy of Heyoka, the sacred clown of the Lakota. I believe humor and play help form connections across different backgrounds and perspectives, creating a more inviting world. Art creates a space of collective healing, and I share that space through collaborations with arts organizations, schools, shelters, rehabilitation centers, and nonprofits across the country. Storytelling and processes based on play and experimentation are key to developing engaging work and dynamic conversation.
