Interim (Museum of Contemporary Art Denver), 2021, oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 212.9 cm)
Sarah McKenzie is based in Boulder, Colorado. Her paintings document our built landscape, exploring changes in our architecture (what we build) for evidence of societal, economic, and cultural shifts (why we build). She is particularly interested in the dynamics of institutional space, as manifested in American museums and prisons. Sarah has exhibited her paintings nationally, including shows with the Walker Art Center, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Yale School of Architecture, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, among other venues. In 2021, she was awarded the Marion International Fellowship for the Visual and Performing Arts to support her research on the architecture of prisons. That same year, she also began teaching art classes inside the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) through the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative. When she is not in the studio, McKenzie helps to run Tilt West, a Denver based arts and culture nonprofit, and in 2024, along with Lillian Stannard, Sarah co-founded Impact Arts to continue her teaching in the CDOC and to create and support exhibition opportunities for artists impacted by the system.