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statement

My work is an invitation to the viewer to participate in the joy of making. I avoid mystery or restraint in my use of materials. Their tactile abundance is a metaphor for satiation and indulgence. 

As a multimedia artist, my work sits somewhere between painting and sculpture. I approach materials additively to emphasize the action of construction. I enjoy clashing cacophonies of color and using diverse materials such as wool, plastic and wood. My work says, “You can have everything – this is everything I have.”

The human body is a reference point for the scale of all my work. My recent wool hangings can be wall mounted like paintings or become semi enclosed spaces to sit and rest. I am curious about how their initial vibrancy is subdued when feeling embraced by the panels. Childlike percussive instruments that hang amongst them invite communication through sound. The collaborative exercise of listening and communicating grounds the participant in their own perception.

My family history of perpetual immigration is a universal reality. Color and texture can drive a work into space, and if the body lacks a space to inhabit, it can be created. A space to inhabit is a metaphor for me. When fleeing, the body gets in the way. After generations of fleeing, it is possible if not beneficial to erase the body. My work generates places to rest and rebuild.

BIO

Sylvia Schwartz was born in Australia and has lived and worked in New York and Brooklyn since 1991. With diverse materials, Schwartz describes her work as sitting somewhere between painting and sculpture. Her materials include paint, fabric, wool, wood, wire, and found plastic. Photography is essential to her process as a  form of drawing.

Schwartz studied sculpture with artist Judy Pfaff at Columbia University. She previously completed an MFA in painting from the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia.  Schwartz has exhibited in the Attleboro Museum, Nurture Art, ODETTA Gallery, Lesley Heller Gallery, the Visual Art Center of New Jersey and the Ely Center Of Contemporary Art, among other galleries.

© 2024 by Sylvia Schwartz

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