John Sabraw
Professor, Painting and Drawing
Bio
Artist John Sabraw was born in Lakenheath, England. An activist and environmentalist, Sabraw’s paintings, drawings and collaborative installations are produced in an eco-conscious manner, and he continually works toward a fully sustainable practice. He collaborates with scientists on many projects, and one of his current collaborations involves creating paint and paintings from iron oxide extracted in the process of remediating polluted streams. This sustainably sourced pigment is now for sale as a 3 tube set from Gamblin Artists Colors.
Sabraw’s art is in numerous collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, the Elmhurst Museum in Illinois, Emprise Bank, Bank of America, and Accenture Corp. He is represented by Qualia Contemporary Art, Palo Alto, CA; McCormick Gallery, Chicago, IL; Gallery Shtorm, London, UK; and Sargent Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA.
Sabraw is a Professor of Art at Ohio University where he chairs the Painting + Drawing and Digital Art + Technology programs and is Board Advisor at Scribble Art Workshop in New York. He has most recently been featured in TED, Smithsonian, New Scientist, London, Great big Stories, Business Insider, and Time.
Art and Innovation
Where many may have seen despair, a few saw great opportunity
Support our hard-working community of art and science students, volunteers and local citizens in making the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers healthier ecosystems, through the John Sabraw Art and Innovation Fund.
Iron oxides make beautiful, lightfast and safe oil colors
Throughout Central Appalachia and beyond, abandoned coal mines release acid mine drainage into the vast network of surrounding streams, harming aquatic life and the promise of clean water. Guy Riefler, a civil engineering professor at Ohio University invented a process to collect the contaminated water, filter out the iron, and gift the clean water back to nature. Enter artist and professor John Sabraw, who recognized the potential for the colored waste. The two created teams of art and engineering students who worked on site and in the university’s labs to wash the filtered iron, dry it, and finally grind it into iron oxide pigments. They were joined by Michelle Shively, Sunday Creek Watershed Coordinator and Rural Action.
Gamblin Reclaimed Earth Colors
This set of Reclaimed Earth Colors is the first product to come out of John and Guy’s efforts to capture iron at its source. A full-scale True Pigments water treatment facility is in the works to further clean the region’s waterways, treating the largest acid mine drainage discharge in the state of Ohio, and provide iron oxide pigments to other industries.
Art and Innovation in the News
TED talk: https://youtu.be/6Qz1HVcRu7g
The Grist: https://grist.org/justice/coal-pollution-turned-an-appalachian-creek-orange-locals-are-using-it-to-make-paint/
BBC Radio's Art of Now: Filth https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dpjh