The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition: 200 Years of the Brooklyn Museum

October 4, 2024 - January 26, 2025
  • In celebration of the Brooklyn Museum's 200th Anniversary, the Brooklyn Artists Exhibition was curated to illuminate the breadth of talent...

    In celebration of the Brooklyn Museum's 200th Anniversary, the Brooklyn Artists Exhibition was curated to illuminate the breadth of talent in the borough. Featuring artists who have lived or worked in Brooklyn over the past five years, the exhibition includes pieces by artist Sharon Sprung, widely known for her figurative paintings and portraiture. 

     

    The exhibition opened on October 4, 2024 and will run until January 26, 2025. 

  • Sharon Sprung’s mastery of portraiture and figurative works is evident in her expressive style, which captures the physical presence and...
    Sharon Sprung standing before Emergence at the Brooklyn Museum

    Sharon Sprung’s mastery of portraiture and figurative works is evident in her expressive style, which captures the physical presence and the emotional essence of her subjects. She typically inspires a strong connection between artist and viewer. Her career includes a notable range of sitters, from First Lady Michelle Obama to private commissions for family portraits, corporate leaders, and university deans. 

     

    Sprung’s painting Emergence is currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum. The artist uses the crane as a background metaphor, emphasizing themes of transition and aspiration in a young man’s life journey.

  • 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.