StateMent

My practice centers on figurative painting and sculpture as tools for narrative and social critique. I begin by constructing characters, creatures, and psychological archetypes from imagination, allowing figures shaped by systems of labor, hierarchy, and visibility to emerge intuitively. Once ideas and compositions take form, I turn to observation to refine anatomy, gesture, and structure, grounding these invented bodies in a believable, if fantastical, reality. Painting establishes the emotional and psychological atmosphere of each scene, while sculpture gives physical presence to the figures that inhabit this world.

Beneath the visual whimsy of my work lies a sustained investigation of how power operates through performance and internalization. Distorted bodies and exaggerated features reflect states of shame, guilt, and submission that are not incidental, but learned, rehearsed, and enforced within social systems. My work refuses the neutrality of spectatorship, insisting that no figure, including the viewer, exists outside these systems. My figures oscillate between awareness and compliance, revealing how individuals become both participants in and casualties of the structures that govern them.

Much of my work examines class division as a grotesque and ritualized performance. The lower class appears as visibly marked, creature-like figures, shaped through exaggerated physiognomy and performative costuming that signal reduction and disposability. In contrast, figures in positions of power indulge in excess and self-mythologizing, their abundance presented as both absurd and violent. These scenes resist abstraction, insisting that inequality is not merely structural but embodied, normalized, and staged within everyday life.

Humor and satire function as critical tools rather than relief. Absurdity operates as a destabilizing force, implicating the viewer and withholding easy moral distance. By drawing attention to the theatricality of social roles, my work exposes the tragic absurdity of contemporary systems of power and the uneasy complicity required to sustain them.

"The Puppet's Lament"

In shadows deep, where peepholes shrink,

A theater unfolds on shadows' brink.

With strings unseen and faces veiled,

Their silent sorrows, truth unveiled.

They dance and prance at society's behest,

While above, in revelry, the affluent jest.

With laughter gay and fortunes grand,

The puppets sway beneath their command.

Yet in the gloom, a flicker bright,

A beacon calls through the endless night.

For in this theater, shrouded in blame,

The puppet dreams of breaking free from the game.

Amidst the silence, whispers rise,

Echoes of longing, defying guise.

Through the labyrinth of shadows, they tread,

Seeking liberation from strings well-wed.

So heed the call of shadows' plight,

In this wondrous dance of dark and light.

For within the puppet's silent plea,

Lies the essence of humanity's destiny.

ARTIST BIO

Born in Manhattan, New York, in 2002, Sarah Lorito’s early years contrasted urban chaos and suburban stillness, having relocated to a small town in Bergen County, New Jersey, shortly after her birth. Growing up in a tranquil neighborhood, Sarah often felt a profound disconnect from the pulse of society, finding solace and a deeper connection in the whispers of nature and the escapism of films. As a child, films were a mere diversion, but as she matured, they became a passion, captivated by the fervent performances and mesmerizing cinematography. This enchantment with cinema ignited her desire to capture and communicate raw emotion through her own artistic endeavors when she moved back to New York in 2021. Painting and sculpture emerged as her chosen mediums, allowing her to express the inexpressible.

In the throes of a socio-economic landscape where capitalism's relentless grip increasingly squeezes the middle class, Sarah’s work interrogates the psychological toll of our societal structures. Her art is a poignant critique of the institutions—family, Political, Educational, and State—that purport to uphold societal values while often undermining individual autonomy. Through a lens that is at once despondent and rebellious, Sarah deconstructs these institutions, laying bare their roles in fostering existential dread, conformity, fear, and mental illness.

Sarah recently completed her Master of Fine Arts degree at the New York Academy of Art and had previously studied under renowned artists Joshua Jacobo, Glenn Vilppu, and Iliya Mirochnik. Her work is a darkly inspiring exploration of contemporary theater that incisively challenges societal norms and invites viewers to reflect on the invisible chains of modern life. She offers glimpses into her creative process through her social media platforms, building a narrative that questions and contradicts the status quo.