Sasha December

first contact

UTA Artist Space LA is pleased to present first contact, an Artist Project of paintings and drawings featuring stylized portraits by Sasha December. This new body of work explores the societal pressures December grappled with as a young girl, including femininity, popularity, self-fulfillment, and loneliness; all while embodying a sense of ownership over the past and a hopeful outlook towards the future. With settings that are callbacks to her childhood, she brings to life what she wants to see and feel, through places she’s both felt at peace and wishes she had had during times where she didn’t.

The merging of December’s two worlds – both imaginative and real – creates an ultimate fantasy that she can use to rewrite her past, present, and future. first contact presents a journey of understanding that one’s search for happiness, fulfillment, and perfection, necessitates writing your own path.

Sasha December (b. 1997, New York, NY) is an independent fine artist based in New York City. December graduated Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles with a degree in Fine Arts and a focus in Painting in 2020. She has established placements in notable private collections, selling her work through word of mouth and social media. December began her exploration of paint with abstractions in the form of portraits which she considered both color studies and manifestations of her psyche. The works were heavily inspired by her relationship with her little sister who is severely developmentally disabled. Alongside her abstract works, she painted stylized portraits of girls which soon evolved into her current subject. December accredits anime and manga as her gateway into art as a child, and its influences remain present in her work today. This is December’s first solo presentation on the West Coast.