Sara Friedlander at Sanchez Art Center

Sanchez Art Center begins the new year with three very strong exhibitions, featuring mixed media artist Sara Friedlander, the Sanchez Studio Artists, and a group show by Art Guild of Pacifica. The opening reception is on Friday, January 12, from 7 to 9 pm, with music by Jamey Brzezinski.

In American Women:Birds of im/Migration Sara Friedlander combines her own photographs with vintage photos and paint to create compelling mixed media works that explore the lives and celebrate the valor of the brave women who left home, country, and family to carve out new lives in the United States. In the artist’s words: “Most of them spoke no English, and holding steadfast to their hopes for a brighter future, they faced daunting challenges in order to establish themselves in this new world.” Friedlander’s first work in this genre centered on her maternal grandmother, Masha Bornstein, who in 1908 at the age of 15 traveled alone in steerage to Boston from Belarus. Friedlander learned to know her grandmother through the process of creating this work. The artist invites us to delve deeper into our preconceptions, reminding us that we are a nation of immigrants: “At this critical time, when immigration is seen as a national and global threat throughout the world, these portraits can help us remember and reflect deeply on the reality that most Americans . . . are relatively recent descendants of immigrants or immigrants ourselves.”

Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd in Pacifica, about a mile east of Highway 1. Following opening night, the galleries are open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 1–5 pm, and by appointment, through Feb 12. For more information call 650.355.1894 or visit SanchezArtCenter.org.