Sarah Whyte

Sarah Whyte is an interdisciplinary artist whose work questions her identity as a transracial, transnational, Chinese American, woman, adoptee. She was born in China and lived in an orphanage at the beginning of her formative years. Sarah was then adopted and brought to the United States where she grew up in Virginia and Texas before moving to Chicago for school. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and has presented in venues such as Weinberg Newton Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, and Evanston Art Center. In her practice, Sarah looks to China to understand her story. However, she can only understand China through a Western lens - with no direct access to her motherland in location, language, history, and culture. In her artwork, she explores the complicated intersections of international adoption with global issues such as imperialism, militarism, and colonization. She also draws on more personal issues around identity, racism, and discrimination. She incorporates painting and textile techniques such as embroidery to tell her personal stories around adoption and identity and to bring the complexities of transnational adoption to the fore. Using her own story as clues to reveal histories around human rights, international relations, and race politics.