Playing the Fool: Sara Berman
— The Arts Club London 04 June — 28 September 2025

Playing the Fool invites viewers into close contact with the human form through two large-scale paintings. These works focus on a figure’s midsection, where gloved hands adjust a vibrant yellow and red striped costume, embodying the Fool. Berman’s exploration of clothing as a means of constructing personas and questioning identity.

Accompanying them are smaller paintings and works on paper that expand on the jester motif, showcasing Berman’s distinctive portraiture. Often self-portraits, these blue-toned pieces reflect her tactile, expressive process, with scraped, smudged and brushed surfaces revealing faces full of quiet strength.

Sara Berman (b. 1975, UK) is a London-based artist who studied fashion at Central Saint Martins before completing her MFA at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2016. Her work reclaims the traditionally female realm of portraiture, using the Harlequin figure as a lens through which to explore and challenge societal constructs around femininity. With self-portraiture, she confronts the male gaze with defiant, complex figures rendered in muted, delicate tones. Beneath the surface, her paintings carry a visceral tension – layers of beauty, vulnerability, and quiet resistance.

The exhibition is curated by Amelie von Wedel and Pernilla Holmes of Wedel Art.