Sharon Sprung (b. 1953, Glen Cove, NY) attended Cornell University and studied at the Art Students League of New York and the National Academy of Design. She is best known for her figurative work and significant portrait commissions, most notably the Official White House portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as the Congressional portraits of Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink and Representative Jeanette Rankin. Her more formal portraiture was preceded earlier in her career by penetrating portrayals of the residents of Brooklyn, where she continues to live and paint.
For Sprung, "My paintings are a carefully observed negotiation, manipulated layer upon layer in order to create a work of art as equivalent as possible to the complexity of real life. They are an attempt to control the almost uncontrollable substance that is oil paint, and the equally untamable expression of the human condition."
As a result of her considerable body of work, Sprung has been featured in many news sources, including The New York Times, NBC and CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, ARTnews, and Artforum. In addition to her inclusion in the White House Collection, Sprung’s work is widely collected by public and corporate institutions as well as private collectors. Selected collections include Columbia University, the Federal Courthouse for the Southern District of New York, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, Barnard College, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.