My work Chair Dance II is part of CORNERED, on view 11.8.17 – 10.13.17 at Wonderroot in Atlanta, GA

"'What happens when a man is nurturing and a woman is aggressive?'” For some, this takes on the role of embracing female expressions of aggression, and demonstrating this as a human reaction towards a frustrating and discriminatory set social standards for women and girls. For others, it’s deconstructing archetypes stitch by stitch. Still others utilize humor to challenge traditionally feminine pastimes. For the members of EyeSplice, the work made as artists and as women serve as a powerful vehicle for making visible the diversity, and humanity of women and their experiences."

Extended Practice is an artist-led curatorial project focusing on creating family accessible events, exhibitions and screenings that support and make visible the work and needs of artists who are also mothers.

The first event in the Extended Practice fall event series is The Art of Making it Work on September 17th, a workshop lead by Christa Donner of Cultural Reproducers.

Bad Romance is Friday February 17th, 7:00 pm at the Nightingale Cinema.

"Bad Romance features video works by performers and video artists that play with well-worn conventions of portraying seduction, romantic relationships, or intimate encounters in popular culture. The artists included in this screening expose the underlying mechanics of creating these seductive, and often instructive, images and scenes. They place themselves or their loved ones in front of the camera, employ illuminating voice-overs, construct awkward revelations and propose humorous antidotes to problematic romantic tropes."

Featuring the work of Steven Summers, Charmaine Ortiz, Marlo Koch, Emerson Sigman, Karin Stothart, Casey Smallwood and a live NEO-Craft performance by Marilyn Volkman.

"Sara Holwerda offers a vivid tribute to Marilyn Monroe in “I Love Diamonds,” a mixed media fan depicting the blonde bombshell in curvy silhouette, her hot pink gloved fingers reaching out to caress a giant jewel."

Tiny Divas, a show celebrating "the celebrity divine," features I <3 Diamonds and Dressing Marilyn, and on view from 1.16.15 - 1.27.15 at Non Fiction Gallery in Savannah, GA

Douglas Max Utter writes generously about And is Herself Created in the 2014 W2S Exhibition Catalog. He describes the performance The Fall, as a continuation of the investigation of movement and performance that I began in Chair Dance II:

"Holwerda makes the wrong moves, over and over again, until they aren't wrong anymore, but begin to form the outlines of a life, of a self and a world, where new rules, or no rules, apply."

Chair Dance (Adagio) is included in the 2013 Emergency Index, published by Ugly Duckling Presse:

"Emergency Index attempts to capture a broad snapshot of the "state of the field" of performance, as it exists right now, and as described by artists themselves."

I am honored to be presenting Chair Dance: Object Manipulation in Performance at the UMSL 2014 Women in the Arts Conference. November 7th, 2:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the J.C. Penny Conference Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

I will give a live performance followed by a talk that will explore how movement, image and object can be manipulated to shift expectations about the role of the female body in performance.

My work is included in perpetuity on the Rutgers Institute for Women and Art's
Momentum Directory:

"The Momentum Directory is a networking gateway linking the public to women and transgender artists who embrace varied technologies in their artistic production, and other arts professionals who engage in critical explorations in the field of gender, feminism, art, and technology."

Lennie Bennett reviews Spatial Disruption at the Morean Art Center for the Tampa Bay Times:

"Sara Holwerda's Chair Dance II is a superbly choreographed performance in which the infamous stripper chair dance is transformed into an awkward struggle with the chair as a dance between victim and victimizer. In one position, the woman's head is trapped by the chair legs as if it's holding her in a head lock. We know that she could just push the chair away but for her (and at some level us, too) it has become an inescapable aggressor."

Chair Dance II is part of CologneOff 2014 - 10th annual International Video Art Festival.

CologneOFF Screening: Total Art - "Alienated Identities"
Muza Plus - a space for art, Tel-Aviv, Israel
September 13th, 2014

Chair Dance II is included in Practical Feminism at
Radiator Gallery, organized for EyeSplice Collective by Megan Piontkowski.

Solo exhibition at at The Sculpture Center

"This contemporary homage to the Moulin Rouge examines the origins of persistent female archetypes in mythology and pop culture, and features a live performance."

Violinist Johanna Weisbrock, current and former Cranbrook students, and myself perform Chair Dance with Cranbrook Academy of Art students at Crandemonium - Cranbrook's fundraising Gala November 2, 2013

My live performance Chair Dance (Adagio) is included in LOLWUT, curated by Ellen Mueller at the Seeth Gallery in Buckhannon, WV. Opening and live performances September 5th at 4:30 p.m.

La Intrusa Danza from Spain, Sara Zalek and Sara Holwerda from Chicago perform at Defibrillator Performance Gallery in Chicago August 17th and 18th. Both performances start at 8.

I will be performing Chair Dance (Adagio) accompanied by Johanna Wiesbrock on viola in the |Performance documentation|2013 Rapid Pulse International Performance Festival|.

My work in is reviewed in the Bleader by Sarah Nardi:

"in which she is by turns empowered, impeded, and imprisoned by a prop meant to enhance her sexuality."

Put a Ring on It featured in MTV animation blog Liquid Television.

Barmaiden series is featured in the "Virtual Annex" of the Strange Glue exhibition at Thompson Gallery.

Chair Dance II is included in MIA’s September screening, HUMAN ANIMAL at the Armory Center for the Arts.

"HUMAN ANIMAL features performance based video art exploring relationships with the body, sexuality and sculpture."