Email

sara.inacio318@gmail.com

printmaker and public engagement artist

Sara Inácio is a queer Brazilian printmaker based in Providence, RI. They received a BFA in Printmaking and Public Engagement from Maine College of Art (17’) and have participated in several exhibitions, collaborations and curatorial projects across New England. Sara has attended various artist residencies, including Queer Archive Work (Providence, RI), Art Farm (Marquette, NE) and Green Olive Arts (Tetouan, Morocco). They worked as Education Manager at AS220 Community Studios in 2021, and received thieir Printmaking MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2024. As a graduate student, Sara advanced their experience as an educator through teaching assistantships and deepened their research practice as a microscopy lab assistant at the RISD Nature Lab. Sara is currently working on multiple collaborative projects with support from the RISD Graduate Commons Grant and the Somerson Sustainability Innovation Fund.

Rooted in direct connection with their immediate surroundings, Sara Inácio is drawn to make and think with the organisms, ecosystems and communities that adapt and thrive in spite of the interference of the human-built environment and societal structures that continuously push against their existence. As a printmaker and interdisciplinary maker, they rely on multispecies investigations such as small glimpses into the lives and deaths of their non-human neighbors. As a queer person who immigrated to the U.S. at a young age, Sara finds kinship with the beings they encounter in everyday life, such as the rats in their neighborhood that scurry away in the dark, the feeling of being and not belonging. Using various forms of printmaking, from mezzotints to prints made from roadkill remains, video recordings and immersive installations, Sara explores relationships between the human and non-human, their complex interdependence and coexistence, as well as the hope for recuperation and imagining new collective futures.

Artist CV

  • 2024 - Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, RI Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking

    Graduate Assistantship: Microscopy Technician at The Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab
    Research Focus: queer ecology, multi-species relationships, making with discard and natural materials, socially engaged art.

    2017 - Maine College of Art (MECA), Portland, ME Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking

    Minor: Public Engagement

  • 2024 - Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

    Instructor of Record

    - Printing Discard and the Natural – A self-designed course for graduate and undergraduate students focused on making prints out of found matrices using various techniques including collagraph, monotype, frottage and etching, as well as research and theory relating to relationships between nature and culture, discard and the natural.

    Teaching Assistant

    -Introduction to Lithography

    -Introduction to Letterpress Print as Installation

    2019-21 - AS220 Community Studio (formerly Industries)

    Teaching Artist

    -Introduction to Etching

    -Introduction to Relief Printing

    2019 - Shoe Town Art Center, Haverhill, MA

    Teaching Artist

    - Drawing and Painting (ages 6 – 14)

    - Relief Printing (ages 6-14)

    2018 - Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

    Teachers Assistant

    - Intro to Intaglio Printmaking

  • 2022-23 - Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI - Graduate Studio Technician

    2020-21 - AS220 Industries, Providence, RI - Education Manager

    2020 - Resources for Human Development, Cranston, RI - Direct Support Professional

    2019 - Union Press, Somerville, MA - Assistant Printer

    2017-18 - Erin Flett Studio, Westbrook, ME - Silkscreen Production Printer

    2017-18 - PhoPa Gallery, Portland, ME - Gallery Assistant

    2015-17 - Maine College of Art, Portland, ME - Printmaking Technician

    2016 - Maine College of Art, Portland, ME - Public Engagement Fellow

    2016 - Braddock Tiles, Braddock, PA - Print and Ceramics Studio and Public Engagement Intern

    2015 - Pickwick Independent Press, Portland, ME - Printmaking Studio Intern

  • 2020 - Queer Archive Work, Providence, RI - Local Artist in Residence

    2020 - AS220 Industries, Providence, RI - Drink & Ink Artist in ResidenceAS220

    2018 - Art Farm, Marquette, NE - Artist in Residence

    2018 - Green Olive Arts, Tetouan, Morocco - International Artist in Residence

  • 2024 - RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition - RI Convention Center, Providence, RI

    2023 - RISD Graduate Printmaking Biennial -Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI

    2023 - Demystifying Process - Waterfire Arts Center, Providence, RI

    2022 - Providence Prints - Providence College Galleries, Providence, RI

    2021 - Corner where the Dunkin’ Donuts used to be - Sprout Coworking Gallery, Providence, RI

    2021 - A Seat at the Table - AS220 Resident Gallery, Providence, RI

    2020 - State of Urgency - Cohen Gallery at Brown University, Providence, RI

    2020 - Print Like You Give a Damn -AS220 Project Space, Providence, RI

    2020 - Art of Protest - Jamestown Art Center, Jamestown, RI

    2020 - Animal Kingdom - Outsider Collective, Pawtucket, RI

    2020 - January Show - Public Gallery and Shop, Providence, RI

    2019 - Scary Door - House Show, Providence, RI

    2018 - Home: Reflections on Place - Portland Public library, Portland, ME

    2018 - Give a Sh*t Show - Hope and Feathers, Amherst, MA

    2017 - Chill Print Trade Exhibition - Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA

    2017 - MECA Printmaking Community Exhibition - Abilene, Portland, ME

    2017 - BFA Thesis Exhibition - Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

    2017 - Gathering Connections - Artists at Work Gallery at Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

    2017 - Collective Actions II - Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

    2016 - Journeys: Translations of Travel & Transience - Artist at Work, Portland, ME

    2016 - Maine Emerging Artists - Frank Brockman Gallery, Brunswick, ME

    2016 - Collective Actions - Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

    2016 - Half & Half - Portland, ME and Xi’an, China

    2015/16 - Merit Exhibition - Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

    2015/16 - BFA Show - Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

    2015 - New York International Miniature Print Exhibit - Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, NY

  • 2024 - RISD Employee of the Year, Technology and Innovation category

    2023 - Somerson Sustainability Innovation Fund

    2023 - Ocean Memory Project: Pollution, Forgetting & Loss Grant

    2023 - RISD Graduate Commons Grant

    2022 - RISD Graduate Fellowship

    2017 - MECA Printmaking Department Award

    2016 - MECA Professional Development Grant

    2013-17 MECA Presidential Scholarship

    2013-17 Hildreth Family Endowed Scholarship

  • 2020 - “Print Like You Give a Damn Press Proves Protest Posters’ Power” The People’s Pen, Motif RI

    2020 - “Urgency Reader 2: Mutual Aid Publishing During Crisis” -Queer Archive Work

    2020 - “10 Emerging New England Artists” Art New England Magazine March/April 2020 Issue

    2017 - "Public Engagement: Gathering Connections" - MECA Magazine Summer 2017, Pages 8-9

    2017 - "MECAmorphosis" - Maine Home and Design, May 2017

    2016 - "Public Engagement Fellows" - MECA Public Engagement, meca.edu

    2015 - "Sara Inacio '17 Exhibiting in Miniature Print" - MECA News, November 18, 2015