Photo by Nir Landau

Photo by Nir Landau

Based in Brooklyn, New York, much of multi-media artist Sari Carel's work focuses on translation from one modality to another. Her projects consider interspecies communication, relationships between people and place, and how the senses inform our perception. Also an environmental activist, Sari is a sharp observer of ecosystems, be they natural or human. The Shape of Play is inspired by her many hours spent at playgrounds, watching her children, and considering the sounds that these abstract structures make.

As a parent, I’ve spent many hours in playgrounds in many cities around the world. As an artist, I can’t help but notice how rich playgrounds are. In sight and sound. At the same time, playgrounds are so common that they are almost invisible. In my work I try to mine what might be invisible to us, to make things that are imperceptible visible and tangible and to make visible the lively relationship between place and abstraction.
— Sari Carel

Carel’s work has been exhibited and screened internationally in venues such as Artists Space, Dumbo Arts Festival, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York; LAX Art and Young Projects in Los Angeles; TA University Gallery in Tel Aviv, and Haifa Museum of Art in Israel and Locust Projects in Miami. She has been awarded numerous fellowships and residencies, including AIR at the Stundars Museum, Finland; AIR Vienna; the Socrates Sculpture Park Artist Fellowship and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency on Governors Island, New York; and the Bundanon Residency, in Australia. Recent exhibitions include The Coyote After-School Program at Melanie Flood