Sylvie Adams
Sylvie Adams is an abstract painter whose quietly mesmerizing compositions gradually reveal an inner life of uncanny awareness and brooding feminine darkness. Working primarily in the technical idiom of the American Abstract Expressionists, Adams perceives her work as the creation of a depth of field, a para-dimensional space into which viewers can project themselves. Adams paints over a period of weeks, beginning in gray scale and gradually introducing sprays and spills of vivid color in a process that is experimental, intuitive, and active upon itself.
Adams often refers to the theme of paradox, the presence of opposing entities whose borders are undeniable and yet difficult to discern. She employs such juxtapositions to interrogate the notion of performativity, counteracting the anxiety inherent in the act of performance with evocations of the random occurrence, the inevitable disruption. Through gestures that subtly reveal iterations of human presence, Adams offsets her strident philosophical explorations by instilling her work with compassion. The results display technical virtuosity, and an emotional nature both fiery and majestically calm.
