Sabrina Staires | Multidisciplinary Artist | Consultant | Taos, NM
Sabrina Staires is a multidisciplinary artist, environmental activist, and consultant whose practice centers on climate awareness, female empowerment, and the interplay between nature and humans.
Her career spans fine art, gallery curation, journalism, and advertising.
She started as a photojournalist for the Kansas City Star and Pitch Weekly Magazine, capturing the city's vibrant music scene, then on into advertising, where her agency work earned two Addy Awards.
Sabrina founded Landon Gallery in the Kansas City Arts District. The gallery presented music performances, writers’ forums, and photographic exhibitions, showcasing work by local and national artists.
She received the Arts through Architecture award which featured her "Elephants on Parade" installation on downtown Kansas City billboards.
As an environmental activist, her advocacy deeply informs her creative pursuits, elevating themes of ecological protection and the healing power of the earth. Her multi-year visual research projects include Echo, an environmental art installation and book series (available on Amazon) that documents the decline of a small lead mining town; Picher, Oklahoma.
Echo toured the country, supporting Sabrina’s conversation around developing environmental art projects. This emphasis on environmental storytelling is also central to her current work, The Desert Floor.
Her short, abstract film 2nd Skin | Emergence of the Divine Feminine, is shown nationally.
Sabrina is an artist consultant. Project development and production are her specialties. She was awarded a fellowship with the Mid-America Arts Alliance in 2024.
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My work is a consideration of Earth . Earth as healer . Earth resilient .
Earth as a source of wisdom.
Living in New Mexico I am grateful (everyday) to have the opportunity to live, hike, camp and photograph untouched, wild, and organic land. Often in this part of the Southwest the land is truly enchanted, and magical in quality. The light is as much a player in the moments of awe experienced here.
I enjoy creating prints that share that sense of inspiration.
Many of my images are nontraditional landscapes. They are calm, minimalist, and ironic at times. I use gold often… and for many reasons. I use organic substances: handmade papers, silk, wax, paint, gold thread and vellum to produce unique images.
My latest project, The Desert Floor was the ocean once before, examines the shifting ecology of the high desert over millions of years. Many of these photographs were captured while hiking through Chaco Canyon, the Saguaros of Arizona, and here in Taos, along the “Slide Trail” where the landscape reveals ancient marine histories amidst a modern climate crisis. By layering precious materials onto these desert scenes, I aim to enshrine the subject matter, imbuing each piece with a sense of mysticism and enduring value.
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Exhibitions
Taos Center for the Arts, Taos, New Mexico, Members Open, group (2026)Puffin Gallery for Social Activism, Teaneck, New Jersey, “2nd Skin Emergence of the Divine Feminine” group (2024)Santa Fe Studio Tour, Santa Fe, NM, (2024)Santa Fe Studio Tour, Santa Fe, NM, (2023)Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO,“(Un) Natural Cylcles”, Group (2022) Sunset Special Film- Santa Fe, New Mexico, Set Decorator and Props Manager (2022)Leedy-Voulkos Art Center - Kansas City, MO, “Articles for a New Era,” Group (2020)Inner Space - Kansas City, MO, Film Premiere of “2nd Skin Emergence of the Divine Feminine,” solo (2020)Center for Fine Art Photography - Fort Collins, CO, “Center Forward 2018,” group, (2018) *honorable mentionSpiva Center for the Arts - Joplin, MO, “Photo Spiva,” Group, juried by Henry Horenstein, (2018) *honorable mention Kansas City Artist Coalition - Kansas City, MO, “Current Works 2018,” group, juried by Keith Davis, Senior Curator of Photography, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art (2017)Leedy-Voulkos Art Center - Kansas City, MO, “Finding Peace, Finding Center,” group (2017)Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art - Saint Joseph, MO, “Sense of Place,” group, (2017)Puffin Foundation - Teaneck, NJ, “Where We Are Now,” group (2017)Central Connecticut State University - New Britain CT, “Echo,” solo (2017)Leedy-Voulkos Art Center - Kansas City, MO, “Echo,” solo (2016)Photoplace Gallery - Middlebury, VT, “Portrait and Place,” group (2014)Front Space Gallery - Kansas City, MO, group (2013)Bemis Center for the Arts - Omaha, NE, group (2012)Arts Through Architecture Billboards - Kanas City, MO, “Elephant Parade,” solo (2012)Center for Fine Art Photography - Fort Collins, CO, “Portraits 2012,” group (2012)Invited Artist Lectures, Interviews, Articles and Consulting
Juror for Catalyst Grant - Mid-America Arts Alliance (2026)Steering Committee Member - Taos Studio Tour (2026)Santa Fe Studio Tour Training for Artist (2025)Artist Mentoring - Artist INC (ongoing) Juror for Catalyst Grant - Mid-America Arts Alliance (2024)Artist INC Express Facilitator - Gallup, NM (2024)Artist INC Express Facilitator - Albuquerque, NM (2024)“Creating Environmental Voice in Art” - Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, (2017) "How I did this” - What Works Wednesday, Artist INC, Kansas City, MO, (2017) Echo Project- Up to Date with Steve Kraske- NPR (2016) Kansas City Star- Etherial Silk Panels by Anne Kniggendorf (2016)KC Studio- “Posing Questions” by Alice Thorson (2016)“This is Environmental Art”-Indian Woods Middle School, Shawnee Mission, KS (2014)Missouri Artboards - by Alice Thorson (2012)Curatorial (select)
Santa Fe Studio Tour Preview Gallery, Women’s Club, Santa Fe,NM (2024)Owner and Curator Landon Gallery - Kansas City, MO, Crossroads Arts District (2008-2011)The New Country - Dan Farnum (2009)Outcasts of Slovakia - Julie Denesha (2010)Awards
Mid-America Arts Alliance Fellow (2024)Photo Spiva Honorable Mention (2018) American Advertising Association ADDY photography for website development (2015)(team award) ArtsKC Grant (2014)American Advertising Association ADDY for color photography (2012) Arts Through Archetecture Award (2012)