Statement
My work explores grief, environmental fragility, and urban gardening, through plant-based inks I forage for and create, which I incorporate into paintings on paper with gouache and collage. In conjunction with the mixed media paintings, I also make small graphite drawings on paper that delve even deeper into the world around me. Moons, butterflies, flowers, spider webs, and Pennsylvania German folk art function as otherworldly icons and motifs. I transform images of flora and fauna into fragmented, dream-like narratives of preservation, reflection, and timelessness. In doing so, I seek to bridge the ever-growing gap between humankind and the natural world.
Biography
Samantha Sanders Leder (she/her, b. 1994) is a Philadelphia-based artist. Sanders obtained her BFA in Fine Arts from the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design in Lancaster, PA, in 2016. She earned her MFA in Fine Arts from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, PA, in 2018. She has participated in numerous group shows at Stella Elkins Gallery at Temple University (PA), Ejecta Projects (PA), Field Projects Gallery (NY), Collar Works Gallery (NY), and MePaintsMe online gallery. In 2017 and 2020, Sanders created murals with Sprocket Mural Works, permanently located in downtown Harrisburg, PA. In 2019, 2020, and 2023, she completed Artist-in-Residence Programs at Oak Spring Garden Foundation (VA). In 2021 and 2022, Sanders was awarded an Illuminate the Arts Grant from the City of Philadelphia. Sanders’s solo show, Of the Earth, was on view at Holy Family University Art Gallery in January 2023. In 2023, she was also a part of the four-person exhibition Sustainable Studios at Millersville University’s Eckert Art Gallery. In 2024, Sanders exhibited her graphite drawings in a four-person show at Monaco Gallery for the first time.
