Sandra Iafrate
Original Paintings in Oil, Acrylic and Mixed Media
About the artist
Sandra was born in the Niagara Peninsula of Canada and has lived and trained in Canada, the USA, and Australia. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Painting at Savannah College of Art and Design. She completed her undergraduate degree in Mass Communications at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and her graduate work in International Journalism at City University London, England. Before devoting herself full-time to her art, Sandra worked in publishing, broadcasting, and public relations..
After Sandra decided to leave her job to take care of her family, she pursued her passion for art and joined professional classes led by award-winning Canadian watercolorist Nancy Hughes in Calgary, Alberta. Sandra also honed her skills in various workshops and ateliers, where she learned drawing and oil painting from renowned artists such as the late Kevin Taylor at the Brighton Arts Society in Melbourne, and Juan Martinez at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto.
Sandra was chosen by Golden Artist Colors Inc. to join their GOLDEN Artist Educator Program back in 2015. With this she includes in her instruction, the complex makeup and use of paints, pigments, mediums, and materials in a safe studio environment. Sandra has contributed to the art world as a docent for the Art Gallery of Ontario, co-founder of North Toronto Group of Artists, McLean, Virginia Project for the Arts, Art Toronto, and has facilitated many community and school art projects and festivals. She has also created a studio-based art curriculum for grades 10, 11, and 12 in compliance with the Ontario Curriculum, which was used in a highly kinesthetic learning environment. Additionally, Sandra contributes annually to Children’s Aid Foundation Canada, Art for Cancer Kids Help Phone, and many other organizations.
Sandra Iafrate's body of work has evolved from representational paintings of flowers and landscapes to mixed-media collages, multi-media pieces, and writing. In her art, she combines time and place with identity by incorporating a variety of elements in her mixed-media collages and paintings. Her work is rich in moments, using carefully selected found materials that are embedded within the composition. She creates the subject of her work by layering these materials and adding complements, counterparts, and palimpsests that remind us of times past and reveal us through poignant recollection.
Through complex portraiture, landscapes, and still-life compositions, she explores themes of identity, memory, and nostalgia. Her most recent work focuses on food and culture, a topic that is close to her and links us to our cultures and heritages. us to our cultures and heritages.
The Dinner Table (Meal Kit Revisited) (detail) Sandra Iafrate 2024.
Sandra employs charcoal, pencil, and mixed media elements such as found objects, maps, textiles, wood, metal, and lace in her recent large-scale portraiture. This enables her to construct an image that serves as a conduit for viewers to contemplate the interplay of history, lineage, experiences, and geographical surroundings. To bridge the past with contemporary times and immediacy, bold brushwork and evocative mark-making are used.
Portrait of Past and Present II
2024, mixed media, 60 x 60 in.
Sandra currently works as an artist, illustrator, and writer, both in Canada and the U.S.
Sandra's original and published works are exhibited and sold internationally.
If you want to learn more about her and her available work, please visit her contact information page.