Clothing continues to be a large part of the British artist’s visual language. She says: “I am very influenced by the way in which the female body is held by clothing both as a space to occupy and as a societal construct. My love and understanding of clothing and textiles, as well as my fascination with clothing as an inhabited space, is very much embedded in my practice, both in my painting and in my weaving and textile sculptures.”

Kirk, who recently commissioned Berman to make a site-specific work for Maison Estelle, a private members’ club in Mayfair, agrees: “Her art focuses specifically on the female experience and is deeply informed by this intimate understanding of fashion and textiles in terms of how we wear, understand and perceive clothes and the female body. The gargantuan woman she created for Maison Estelle appears suspended, falling through space and time equally she could be or caught mid dance in a twisted acrobatic movement.”

Berman has made a harlequin character a recurring motif in her work to explore feminine identity and how our perspective of self and others might be impacted by external appearances.

Kirk says: “Typically, Sara uses soft coloured, bruised-looking backgrounds, which she layers, scrapes, wipes and pushes in vertical and horizontal movements repetitively. The base layer of the painting is almost always a diamond pattern, referencing a harlequin’s costume which becomes ‘the map’ or ‘the soul’ of the composition. Increasingly, I have come to realise that her paintings are about pushing back, of exerting or discovering a power or inner strength. They are often self-portraits and one can feel Sara unlocking and examining her own self, the self that might have been contained or controlled, through the act of painting. The process when she describes it sounds cathartic, and the illuminated light which filters through the layers redemptive.”

In addition to preparing for an upcoming show at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London in May, Berman is also working with clothing again to make textile sculptures and experimenting with a new video piece. She says: “This is a new area for me and there is so much about the process that I am learning. I am working with a choreographer and am soon to have dance factored into my daily schedule – not something I expected!”