Sarah Sze Made Honorary Member of London’s Royal Academy
The American painter and sculptor is the latest artist from outside the U.K. to be bestowed the accolade. Save to My Ocula
The Royal Academy of Arts in London has named Sarah Sze an Honorary Royal Academician, a title awarded to artists living outside the U.K. in recognition of their significant contributions to the arts.
Sze, a Boston-born visual arts professor at Columbia University, represented the United States at the 2013 Venice Biennale. More recently, her mid-career survey featured at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (Timelapse, 2023).
Known for her multimedia installations, her MacArthur Fellowship-winning approach blends analogue and digital materials to craft immersive environments that explore how we perceive time and space.
Her work has frequently found its way to U.K. shores, with large installations at galleries like the Tate Modern and a public artwork in the Victorian waiting room at Peckham Rye station in 2023.
Reflecting on her work in an interview with Ocula, Sze said: ‘I wanted to consider how time cannot be reduced to units—how events and experiences carry psychological and emotional weight rather than quantifiable physical duration.’
Sze was elected by the up to 100 artists and architects practising in the U.K. who make up the membership of the Royal Academy. Active in shaping the institution, these members transition to Senior Academician status at age 75, allowing new voices to join.
Last year, the Royal Academy awarded honorary titles to musician Emily Howard and economist Kate Raworth, while past recipients include artists Kerry James Marshall and Joan Jonas (2023), Ellen Gallagher and Pipilotti Rist (2021), Kara Walker (2019), and Kiki Smith (2017). —[O]
Main image: Sarah Sze, 2023. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian. Photo: Vincente de Paulo.
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