SOMERS, N.Y. - Over my career as an art teacher there are so many students who I have the pleasure to watch grow and take flight, ultimately doing amazing things. For some students you give a lot of yourself, and some come preloaded with so much potential and drive.
I first taught Sasha Gordon in fifth grade. She was quiet, engaged in art making, multi-talented in both music and art and a joy to have in class. We instantly connected and she bought me a beautiful brown scarf as a gift that Christmas, since she noticed it was one of my favorite colors. Years later when I was able to teach her again in high school, her mother shared another gift in saying that she chose to pursue art over music because of me, which was certainly music to my ears. The best gift however has been watching her commitment to the arts and being able to watch her work develop.
While Sasha was born with inherent talent, it was her work ethic that could not be matched. She focused all her energy on her artistic pursuits seeking excellence both in the classroom at SHS and taking classes at surrounding art centers and pre-college programs spending hours on her craft. It is no surprise that her drive has landed her amongst today’s breakout talents in the current art scene. Gordon’s work has been published in Artnet, Vogue, Artsy and has been on view in LA and New York Galleries, in international shows, and this past winter in her first solo museum show Sasha Gordon: Surrogate Self at Miami’s Institute for Contemporary Art. Sasha Gordon’s work focuses on the concept of identity, something she admits she struggled with in adolescence. Gordon’s work made quite a stir at art exhibitions at Somers High School.
“Art is something that gave me hope during such a difficult time in my adolescence, it allowed me to feel seen,” Sasha says.
“When the art shows would happen, I actually, felt confident, and proud of the appreciation I would receive from my teachers and peers,” she continued. “The encouragement and support were what kept me motivated. The art shows were the one time each year I recognized my value. The memories of the art classes and events outweigh my tumultuous relationship with Somers. It was so nice to have a community where we can create and talk about the works together. The support that art programs gave me really encouraged me to pursue this passion. In high school I specifically took painting more seriously, taking art classes where the teachers made us consistently work in our sketch book and try new mediums made me realize that the art world is a real community that I could be a part of.”
Gordon’s passions and studies continued at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where she explored painting further and was exposed to a variety of artists and further honed her skills as an artist and her personal voice.
Sasha Gordon is celebrated as “one to watch” and recently she shared with me, “my favorite work I’ve made is Like Froth, an homage to Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. I was reflecting on my relation to whiteness, which was a huge part of my anxieties in Somers.”
Gordon’s heritage being both Korean and Jewish American.
“Art was something I clung to as a means of comfort, replacing this white figure as my Asian self, was like a love letter to my younger self,” Gordon recalls. “I would go to the Met and only see white figurative paintings, which made me believe that no one that looked like me could find success as an artist, that no one would want to listen to my story. Creating this figure that has alabaster skin and blond hair was highly emotional, yet cathartic. She is vulnerable in her position, her entire nude body exposed, yet there is a sense of confidence in her gaze.”
The work she shares is certainly a story we want to hear and coming of age in today’s art scene allows for more diverse voices to be heard.
We are excited to see Art play a major role in Sasha Gordon’s exploration of her identity and self-expression, as she evolves as an artist on the Global Stage and happy to say that Somers was her Creative StART.
Sasha’s work has been acquired by Baltimore Museum of Art; Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, California; Dallas Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Sasha Gordon is represented by Matthew Brown Gallery and David Zwirner.
Continue to watch and celebrate Sasha’s success by following her at www.instagram.com/sashaagordon/
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