A selection of recent work by Minneapolis-based artist Sara Suppan. Suppan received her BFA in painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2015. She considers her paintings to be a little wave hello. Friendly, not flashy. Using the conventions of still life, Suppan takes her subject matter seriously, no matter how humble or goofy it may be. For Suppan, creating “good paintings of bad drawings” means attending to “the humble stuff”—a frowny face keyed into a car or a nice bowl of lemons tattooed with amateurish doodles:

“My paintings depend on beauty being undercut by a crude or sloppy element. High status is conferred by the tradition of oil painting and by the hours of labor implied, but the subjects I choose are, if not outright funny, sort of oddball. I generally take everyday things directly from my home. I veer toward analog and sometimes nostalgic objects but these get mixed up with more contemporary signifiers like emoticons and chapstick, displacing them from a particular time. These paintings represent real effort—too sincere to be simply funny—and yet too silly to be serious. I always want to skate that edge; using the full force of my ability and attention in the service of making something fundamentally weird, and recognizable, and good.”