Sylvia Snowden: Green Paintings

About

The exhibition coincides with the publication of Sylvia Snowden: M Street, a new monograph published by American Art Catalogues that includes essays by curator Gavin Delahunty and art historian Rebecca VanDiver, and a lively conversation between Sylvia Snowden and Nathaniel Mary Quinn.

Sylvia Snowden has developed a singular body of work spanning six decades, which is characterized by a visceral and sculptural application of paint in which color and texture emerge from densely-worked underlayers. Working in series, Snowden’s work aims to depict the struggles and triumphs of humanity and dispel the societal myths that are used to push us apart. Most notable is Snowden’s M Street Series started in the late 70s after Snowden moved to Washington’s Shaw Neighborhood, where she still resides, which was marked by impending dislocation due to gentrification. Snowden aimed to portray the people she encountered within the neighborhood, many of whom were transient, unemployed, and/ or unhoused, depicting each with their own individual grace and dignity. Pushing against the bounds of the paintings’ frames, Snowden’s figures seem to urgently wrestle with the energetic abstractions that surround them, as a way to depict their resilience in the face of adversity.

Snowden’s recent series Green Paintings, which comprises the exhibition at 394 Broadway, demonstrates her ongoing belief in the potency of abstraction. Here, a thick impasto of acrylic, buttressed by plastic sheeting and other materials bears traces of the wide array of Snowden’s gestures - from brushes and palette knives. Within these energetic compositions, masses of saturated chemical color build on top of one another, suggesting ongoing movement. Throughout, Snowden displays a commitment to grappling with the process of translating creative energy into physical form, while leaving visible the traces of the works’ making.