Sylvia Snowden (born 1942) is an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

abstract painter who works with acrylics, oil pastels, and mixed media to create textured works that convey the "feel of paint". Many museums have hosted her art in exhibits, while several have added her works to their permanent collections.

Early life and education

Sylvia Snowden was born in 1942 in Raleigh, NC. Snowden attended Howard University where she studied under David Driskell and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree. She received a scholarship to

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 t ...

Skowhegan, Maine Skowhegan () is the county seat of Somerset County, Maine. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 8,620. Every August, Skowhegan hosts the annual Skowhegan State Fair, the oldest continuously-held state fair in the United States. Skowh ...

and has a certificate from Le Grande Chaumier in Paris, France.

Career

She has taught at Howard University, Cornell and Yale, has served as an artist-in-residence, a panelist, visiting artist, lecturer/instructor and curator in universities, galleries and art schools both in the United States and abroad.

Works

She has exhibited at the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

, Women's Museum, Montclair Art Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art,

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Lloyd W ...

The Phillips Collection The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H. Laughlin, ...

, Heckscher Museum of Art,

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

, the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial Museum and National Archives for Black Women's History, and the

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's perm ...

in Kansas City, Missouri. Her works have been shown in Chile, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, Australia, the Bahamas, France, Mexico, Italy and Japan. Her 2000 exhibition at the

featured work inspired by the death of her son. She has received a number of awards including the Lois M. Jones Award for Recognition. The

received grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation and from the

National Endowment of the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

to feature an exhibit on American abstract art called "Magnetic Fields" which included works by Sylvia Snowden and others. According to the museum, this exhibit marked the "first U.S. presentation dedicated exclusively to the formal and historical dialogue of abstraction by women artists of color." In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition '' Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970'' at the

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

in London.

Selected exhibitions

*2021 Parrasch Heijnen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, "Sylvia Snowden: Select Works, 1966 - 2020." *2020 National Gallery Of Art, Washington, D.C., 'Mammie Harrington". Evans Tibbs Collection, Harry Cooper. *2020 Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas, "five Artists You Should Know. A Conversation With Melissa Mesinna". *2020 Gavlak Gallery, Los Angeles, California "Nasty Women", Sarah Gavlak, *2017 Group Exhibition: "Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today," Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO *2011 Group Exhibition: "Artistic Reflections", Brentwood Arts Exchange, Brentwood, MD *2007 Solo Exhibition: "Flowers", Parish Gallery, Norman Parish, Washington, D.C. *2003

, "Black is a Color: African American Art," Susan Bader, Washington, D.C. *2000 Solo Exhibition, " Malik, Farewell 'Till We Meet Again," Jack Cowart,

, Washington, D.C. *1997 Solo Exhibition, "Works by Sylvia Snowden," Terrance De Vaux, Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas. *1994 Solo Exhibition, "Sylvia Snowden: The Burns Series", Zenith Gallery, Washington, D.C., Margery Goldberg. (Brochure) *1992 Solo Exhibition, "Sylvia Snowden," The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Angela Adams. (Brochure) *1992 Solo Exhibition, "New Abstractions", Emerson Gallery, McLean, Virginia. Alice Thorson. (Brochure) *1991

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

, "Works of Distinction, Selected Donations and Loans", Susan Fisher Sterling, Group Exhibition, Washington, D.C. *1989 Solo Exhibition, "Sylvia Snowden/Paintings '89", Ipomal Galerij, Netherlands. *1985 Solo Exhibition, "Paintings and Works on Paper", Brody's Gallery, Washington, D.C. *1980 Solo Exhibition, "M Street: Part II", 10th Street Gallery, Washington, D.C. *1979 Solo Exhibition (Simultaneous) "M Street: Part I", Zenith Gallery, Washington, D.C., and Howard University, Washington, D.C. *1979 "Emerging Artists", Invitational, Group Exhibition, Washington Projects for the Arts, Walter Hopps, Washington, D.C. *1976 Solo Exhibition, Seymore Center for the Arts, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. (Catalogue) *1975 Solo Exhibition, "Sylvia Snowden: Paintings, Drawing, Collages", University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland. *1972 Solo Exhibition, "Oils By Sylvia Snowden", Coppin State College, Baltimore, Maryland. *1971 Solo Exhibition, "Large Oils by Sylvia Snowden", Jonade Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland. *1970 Solo Exhibition, "Recent Paintings by Sylvia Snowden; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. (Brochure) *1969 Solo Exhibition, "Painting and Collage by Snowden", University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland. (Brochure) *1968 Solo Exhibition, "Abstractions by Sylvia Snowden" Mondawmin Center, Baltimore, Maryland. *1965 Solo Exhibitions, "Birds of Prey by Sylvia Snowden,"

Delaware State College Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The university encompasses four col ...

, Dover, Delaware (Brochure)

Bibliography

*''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'', Edward Sozanski, "Black Abstraction in Lancaster", April 18, 2004. *'' The Patriot News'', Zachary Lewis, "Black Abstract Artist Showcase Shared Traits", April 4, 2004. *''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Jo Ann Lewis, "Prized Possessions," September 3, 2000. *''The Washington Post'', Weekend,Michael O'Sullivan, "Life and Death and Malik." September 1, 2000. *''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...

'', Joanna Shaw-Eagle, "Images of Shattered Youth," August 26, 2000. *'' The Intowner'', David Barrows, "A Moving Tribute to a Son," September 2000. *''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Datebook, "Sylvia: Malik, Farewell 'Til We Meet Again'," September 1, 2000. *

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, Jacki Lyden, "Weekend – All Things Considered," September 16, 2000. * WETA, Around Town 1601, "Sylvia Snowden, Works at the Corcoran Gallery of Art," October 12, 2000. *''Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century'', Richard J. Powell, New York: Thames and Hudson, Inc., 1997. *D.C.Area Artists'97, The Lab School of Washington, Washington, D.C. *''Night and Day'', The Corcoran Museum of Art, "Major African-American Collection Donated to the Corcoran," Samuel Hai, July/August 1996. *''Jet'', National Report, "Art Dealer Thurlow Tibbs Donates Major Collection of African-American Art to Corcoran Gallery in D.C.," Vol. 90, No. 4, June 20, 1996, Chicago, Illinois. *''The Intowner'', Art and Artists: Sylvia Snowden," David Barrows, Vol. 28, No. 4, 1996, Washington, D.C. *''The Washington Post'', Lee Fleming, "Sylvia Snowden at Addison/Ripley Gallery," March 18, 1995. *''City Paper'', Mike Givliano, "Black and Abstract, " February 22, 1995 *Leslie King-Hammond, et al., ''Gumbo Ya-Ya: Anthology of Contemporary African-American Women Artist'' (New York; MidmarchArts Press, 1995) pp. 269–270. *''The Washington Post'', Elizabeth Kastor, "Finding Her Muse In Malik", April 17, 1994, 117th year, No. 133. *''The Washington Post'', Dorothy Gilliam, "Finding Ways To Stem This Violent Tide", July 10, 1993, 116th year. *'' Washington Review'', Michael Clark, "Sylvia Snowden, National Museum of Women in the Arts; Sylvia Snowden: Abstract Paintings, Zenith Gallery", June/July 1993, Volume XIX, Number 1. *''The Washington Post'', Mary McCoy, "Art: Painter Sylvia Snowden's Visceral Expressionism", December 26, 1992, 115th Year. *''The Washington Post'', Hank Burchard, "Singularly Like Snowden", November 20, 1992, 115th Year. *''Eye Wash'', George Howell, "Sylvia Snowden", December 1992, Volume 4, No. 10. *''The Washington Post'', Mary McCoy, "High-Energy Expressionism", May 30, 1992, 115th year, No. 177. *''

Washington City Paper The ''Washington City Paper'' is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The ''City Paper'' is distributed on Thursdays; its average circulation in 2006 was 85,588. The paper's editorial mix is focused ...

'', Rex Weil, "True Colors: Sylvia Snowden, New Abstractions", May 22–28, 1992, Vol. 12, No. 21. *''American Art'', National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Judith Wilson, "Optical Illusions: Images of Miscegenation in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century American Art", Oxford University Press, Summer 1991, Volume S, No. 3. *College Art Association,Judith Wilson, "Sex, Race, and Gender" – Paper, Washington, D.C., 1991. *''The Washington Post'', Michael Welzenbach, "Debut With A Difference", September 22, 1990. *''City Paper'', Alice Thorson, "Art and Conscience", September 1990, Vol. 10, No. 39. *'' Colorado Daily'', David Alan, "Artist Sylvia Snowden", November 1990, Vol. 98, No. 47. *''Limburqs Dagblad'', T. S. Vallinga, "Sylvia Snowden bij Ipomal", Zaterdag November 4, 1989. *'' New Art Examiner'', Alice Thorson, "Sylvia Snowden Engaging Expressionism", October 1988, Volume 16, No. 2. *''Washington Review'', Sheila Rotner, "Sylvia Snowden: Paintings on Paper", June/July 1988, Volume XIV, No. 1. *''The Washington Post'', Henry Allen, "Acrylic Avalanche", November 14, 1987. *''The Washington Times'', Alice Thorson, "Two Approaches to the Group Show", July 30, 1987. *''The Washington Times'', Alice Thorson, "Separate But More Than Equal", January 29, 1987. *''The Washington Post'', Elizabeth Lazarus, "The Experience Exhibited", August 1986. *''New Art Examiner'', J. W. Mahoney, "Sylvia Snowden", January 1986. *''Washington Review'', Mary McCoy, "Sylvia Snowden: Painting and Works on Paper", December 1985. *'' The Washington Afro-American'', Charles Farrow, "Curtain Call", March 3, 1979. *''The Washington Post'', Jo Ann Lewis, "Arts As A Statement", March 3, 1979. *''The Washington Star'', Benjamin Forgey, "Galleries: High Voltage Intensity in Paintings from the Inner City", Sunday, May 4, 1979. *Honorarium, M Street: Part I. Howard University, Department of Art, Washington, D.C. *Voice of America, Arlene Stern, Washington, D.C. *''Four Abstract Artists'',

The Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...

, Baltimore, Maryland. *Sylvia Snowden, ''A Black American Female Painter'',

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

Australia Press. *''Resource Guide to the Visual Arts of Afro-Americans'', South Indiana, 1971.

References

External links

Sylvia Snowden Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snowden, Sylvia American women painters Living people Howard University alumni Howard University faculty Cornell University faculty Yale University faculty 20th-century American women artists 1942 births 20th-century American painters 21st-century American women artists 21st-century American painters American abstract artists American women academics 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American painters 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American artists Artists from North Carolina People from Raleigh, North Carolina