Sara Anstis

Sara Anstis was raised on a small island off the Canadian west coast. Her images, installations and collaborative projects take shape through an intuitive exploration of memories and desires. In her soft pastel drawings, her unruly primarily female figures can be found engaging in scenes of revelry and living tender moments within landscapes built from imagination. In this world of their own, much of their mischievousness comes from the possibility of being caught by a look.


Anstis received her BFA in Studio Art and Sociology at Concordia University in 2013 and her MFA in Fine Art from Valand Academy in 2016. In 2018, she completed the Drawing Year Postgraduate Programme at the Royal Drawing School. She has recently shown her work in numerous exhibitions, including The Self, the Work, the World, at Fabian Lang gallery; Slip spill, at 650mAh (solo), Hove in Brighton, UK; and Gestures of Comfort, at Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran in Montreal. She has received grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, Jerwood Arts, and the Anna-Lisa Thomson foundation, amongst others.