Home Artist Programs Supported Artists Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo

Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo

Davidson, North Carolina

A gray, black, and golden-brown drawing on white paper is displayed between sheets of clear acrylic in a wood floor stand. The drawing shows nests and tangles of snakes, and a papery snakeskin kinks wildly in a smaller box inset near the lower right corner.

A Shudder of Elation and Fear

2025

A black-and-white drawing is sandwiched in clear acrylic sheets held in place in a wood-framed floor stand. A bullet and casing are encased in a smaller clear box beneath the drawing, which fills most of the frame. The drawing is gray and veined around an inky black void at its center.

The Measure of My Grief Is Equal to the Measure of My Love

2025

A roughly ball-shaped, free-standing sculpture is made up of a framework of wood planks and short beams like a blocky honeycomb. The spaces are filled with black asphalt or fabric that creates a sheen like dark mother-of-pearl.

The Sinkhole

2022

A free-standing sculpture of a serpentine form curves in a loop at the top and cross near the stone on which it perches. The form is covered with white shells, and one leg bristles with metal nails. A deer skull is affixed to the curved section, and the sculpture sits in a pile of sand in different shades of brown.

Kin/Kindred

2020

Artworks shown are selected from works submitted by the artist in their grant or residency application. All works are copyright of the artist or artist’s estate.

About Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo

Sarah Elizabeth smiles out at us in this black-and-white portrait photograph. She sits with her wrists crossed, and she wears a dark shirt and two rings on the hand closer to us. She has long dark hair.

Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo is an interdisciplinary artist based in Davidson, NC. Her work has been exhibited in institutions such as Duke University (Durham, NC), Antenna (New Orleans, LA), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Lost Angeles, CA), The Weatherspoon Museum (Greensboro, NC), Field Projects (New York, NY), The Hilliard Museum (Lafayette, LA), Rhodes College (Memphis, TN), and the 2023 statewide Tennessee Triennial. She has been awarded residencies at the McColl Center, Vermont Studio Center, Hambidge Center, and Crosstown Arts. She has received grants and fellowships from South Arts, Tri-Star Arts, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, ARTSmemphis, and was the runner up for the 2022 Southern Prize. She received her MFA in interdisciplinary studio from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Art in Sculpture and Drawing at Davidson College.

Program Participation

Joan Mitchell Fellowship, 2026

Website / Social Links

“ My interdisciplinary work utilizes sculpture, drawing, and installation to explore the possibilities within hybridity and respond to a troubled present in the wake of humanity’s destructive path. The resulting narratives investigate the illusion of human exceptionalism and hypothesize about the urgency of humanity’s trajectory on Earth.”