Sarah von Sydow studied in New York City, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors from the School of Visual Arts. Her teachers included Amy Wilson, Peter Heinemann (Black Mountain College), Judith Linhares, Marilyn Lerner, Georgia Marsh, Suzanne Joelson, Jack Whitten, Alice Aycock, Matvey Levenstein, Bill Beckley, Peter Dudek, Mary Heilmann, Steve DeFrank, and John Newman, among others.

She later pursued studies in language, literature, and linguistics at Stockholm University and Université Aix-Marseille, and received a Master of Education from Umeå University. She began working seriously with painting in 2015 and has since been engaged in a sustained process of determining what and how to paint, an inquiry she understands as inseparable. Over the past year and a half, this focus has sharpened.

At various points in her career, she has worked as an assistant to Judith Linhares, Suzanne Joelson, Amy Wilson, Joakim Hansén, and Everest Hall. She has also spent several years teaching upper secondary art in public schools. Together, these experiences have shaped how she approaches images as constructed systems that must be learned, tested, and maintained rather than relying solely on intuitive expression.