Sarah Oppenheimer Appointed Professor in the Practice

The Yale School of Art is pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah Oppenheimer as professor in the practice. Oppenheimer is an artist and educator who works at the intersection of art, design, and architecture using a range of techniques and technologies to explore the connection between the human body, machines and architecture. Most recently serving as a senior critic, Oppenheimer was first appointed to the School of Art faculty in 2005; the new appointment began January 1, 2025.

This new appointment was developed in collaboration with the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM), where Oppenheimer will also be a faculty fellow. For many years CCAM has hosted and helped to develop several iterations of “Sensitive Machine,” a workshop collaboratively taught by Oppenheimer and mechanical engineer Joseph Zinter. As Oppenheimer shared with Dana Karwas, Director of CCAM, in a conversation published in the CCAM journal, Maquette: “The workshop is an exploration of the body as a mechanical instrument. Students constructed human-powered mechanisms to isolate and amplify a simple gesture … [creating] a conscious awareness of the action and thereby altering the memory of the movement. Mechanical extension and collaborative control compounded this alienation, creating a new self-awareness.” Oppenheimer has continued to develop collaborative courses and workshops across the University, including with the Yale University Art Gallery and the Center for Engineering, Innovation and Design (CEID).

Kymberly Pinder, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the School of Art, notes: “Oppenheimer’s breadth of practice brings to our School unique viewpoints and references across not only media but also discipline.” Associate Dean Anoka Faruqee adds, “Oppenheimer is a thriving and internationally recognized artist who performs equally as an educator and a colleague, bringing brilliance, intensity, and dedication to art, teaching, and research.”

Sarah Oppenheimer holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art and a BA from Brown University. Solo exhibitions of its work have been presented internationally, including EPFL Pavilions Lausanne, Switzerland; Wellin Museum of Art, New York; Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland; MASS MoCA, Massachusetts; Wexner Center for the Arts; the Perez Art Museum Miami, Florida; Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland; the Baltimore Museum of Art; and the Drawing Center, New York. Oppenheimer’s work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions, including at ZKM, Germany; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; SITE Santa Fe; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California, the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; the Hessel Museum of Art, New York; and SculptureCenter, New York. Oppenheimer is also a recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship, the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Art and was elected to the National Academy of Design in 2023.