Sylvan’s Art Year (2023)

2023 was a really great art year for me with exciting opportunities to show my work across the country throughout the year and new gallery representation with the Contemporary Art Modern Project – the CAMP Gallery. 

(March-April, 2023) My oracle sculpture series was shown at Patricia Sweetow Gallery in Chorus of Twisted Threads: Sarah Amos | John Paul Morabito | Ramekon O’Arwisters | Michael Sylvan Robinson. “The  intention and language of their work differ, but all the artists are forging new boundaries with fiber. Morabito, Robinson and O’Arwisters’ work unfolds metaphoric dramas of gay, secular and devotional life, while Amos delves into large scale collagraphs as the foundation for complex fiber constructions.” Patricia Sweetow Gallery moved to L.A. from San Francisco into a gorgeous new space, and I was honored to work with Patricia and show with these incredible artists. One of the highlights of the year was being in the gallery for an artist talk in conversation with Fafnir Adamites (we both serve on the Surface Design Association Board of Directors). 

(March-April & September, 2023) Unconditional Care curated by Katrina Majkut. My memorial garment “We Honor and Remember the 44,895 Killed by Gun Violence in the U.S. in 2021” was featured as part of Gays Against Guns participation in “Unconditional Care” at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center in September; an earlier version of the show was partially censored in Idaho when abortion-themed works were removed prior to the opening at Lewis-Clark State College. In addition to the garment, GAG created placards for individual women killed by gun violence specific to both the Idaho and Rochester exhibitions. 

(June – July) Safekeeping:  “to ward off late stage capitalism” (2021) was selected for “Safekeeping” Surface Design Association’s juried members’ exhibition in partnership with 108Contemporary in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Thank you to juror Anita Fields for this opportunity to be included with fellow SDA members exploring this intriguing theme: “This is a time for safeguarding both body and land, for seeking refuge through ritual and narrative, and for defending precarious boundaries and issues…” 

(November) Paul Taylor Gala: My first wearable commission since the Met Gala, a dear friend and former colleague, Robert Aberlin, brought me a thrifted $1 tan jacket to transform. I deliberately left spaces of the original jacket untouched while covering the rest with hand-pieced textile collage with built up layers for drapery and hair, embroidered and hand-beaded, sequined details. Robert wore the jacket to the Paul Taylor Gala. 

(November) Follow the Threads: A multiple location exhibition organized by Italian fiber arts magazine, Arte Morbida included Threads of Our Time curated by Barbara Pavan and Maurita Cardone; this was the first time that my “Composting Our Fears + Committing to Action” was shown in NYC! I wore my own art fashion pieces to the opening reception at Maker’s Studio at Chelsea Market! In 2019, when I was the artist in residence at Textile Arts Center in NYC, workshop participants contributed descriptions of their personal fears and calls for social action added as the stenciled text details. One side of the sculptural garment, made with two jackets in a “Janus”-like joining, holds the fears on the inside of the lining and the commitments to action on the outside surface; the opposite facing jacket carries participant’s intentions inside and exposes their fears on its outer layers; the two jackets face different directions but are joined at the center. The plague doctor fabrics utilized in the textile collage were selected many months prior to the arrival of the global health crisis, but I completed this large community-engaged project during the many months of the initial pandemic.

(December) Venus Rising… Sold! (thank you CAMP Gallery and Artsy) My “Venus Rising: a Contemporary Invocation” is going to a new collector! This special piece was featured in two Rome Art Week exhibitions and weathered the first years of the pandemic in Italy before returning to the U.S. for a clothing-themed exhibition at the Annmarie Sculpture Garden. “Venus Rising: A Contemporary Invocation” sculptural garment explores the rising Venus presence needed in our activism and healing trauma stewardship during this time of injustice and environmental crisis, embodied through a lifetime commitment to feminism and Queer community-building. Hand-stenciled poetic text fragments both within the garment on the lining and on the outer textile collage surface name intentions and affirm a call to loving action. In 2019, “Venus Rising…” broke a drought of opportunities and was sent off to Felicity Griffin Clark for my first international exhibition and resided in Rome throughout the entire pandemic, working its healing magic, and showed again at the Palazzo Velli Expo in Rome Art Week 2021 with the Society for Embroidered Work! 

2024 already has some exciting opportunities booked – “Threads of Resistance and Resilience” a solo show at Iridian Gallery in Richmond, Virginia in April. And a BIG spring art opportunity that I’m not yet sharing about, but will be spreading the news soon! ~ Sylvan