Sári Ember
Sári Ember (1985) was born in São Paulo, Brazil, currently lives and works in Budapest, Hungary. In 2009 she graduated from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME), where she majored in Photography and Visual Communications. During her studies she spent several semesters in the United Kingdom and Slovenia. She took part in various residency programs in Brazil, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Her works have been exhibited internationally both in solo and group exhibitions for example in São Paulo, Paris, Berlin, Antwerpen, New York, Brno and Budapest. In 2016 she received the Derkovits Scholarship, in 2017 she was awarded with the Campari Art Prize on Artissima in Turin – where she was represented by Ani Molnár Gallery – and the Herczeg Klára Award. In 2018, she had a solo show at the Galleria Campari in Milan. In 2019 she won the Leopold Bloom Art Award. In the same year she exhibited at the Survival Kit 10.1 art festival in Riga and worked at the two-month residency program of Tranzit.org in Vienna.
Ember’s works are based on the duality enclosed in the exhibited pieces. By displaying simple objects and at the same time continuously redefining classical genres like still-life and landscape the artworks address questions about the nature of representation. In her work she deals with her personal past, the past of communities and the role of the individual in these communities. She is interested in the notion of home, belonging, and heritage reflected in the changing settings of our everyday life. Recently, her interest is drawn towards more abstract images and objects through the examination of the classic genre of portraiture, pushing the boundaries of the shape of the face to its abstract limits. She works with different media, such as photography, collage, ceramics and stone, creating -often site specific- installations.