Sarah Dwyer: Penti Menti

The title of the inaugural monograph of Irish artist Sarah Dwyer to the art historical concept of pentimento—from the Italian, pentirsi, “to repent”— which refers to the visible traces of an artist’s revisions within a painting. For Dwyer, these transformations lie at the heart of her practice: painting becomes a process of layering and erasing, of burying and excavating, mirroring how memory and time shape both body and landscape. It includes an in-depth essay by author and Frieze Magazine Editor at Large Jennifer Higgie on the themes and processes of Dwyer’s oeuvre in an international context, a text by Dr Yvonne Scott on Dwyer’s connection to Ireland and to nineteenth- and twentieth-century art movements, and rich illustrations of the artist’s works and exhibitions. Sarah Dwyer (b. 1974, Ireland) lives and works in London. Drawing is central to her process, combined with painting, and sculpture. Exuberant colours and figurative and abstract marks reimagine daily life and play. Trained at the RCA she has exhibited extensively, and is represented in collections across the world.