Sylvia Snowden

Sylvia Snowden (born 1942) is an African American 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 in Skowhegan, Maine 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, Women's Museum, Montclair Art Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection, Heckscher Museum of Art, American University, Her works have been shown in Chile, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, Australia, the Bahamas, France, Mexico, Italy and Japan. Her 2000 exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art 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 Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art received grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation and from the National Endowment of the Arts 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 in London.

Selected exhibitions • 2024 The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, UK 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 Corcoran Gallery of Art, "Black is a Color: African American Art," Susan Bader, Washington, D.C. 2000 Solo Exhibition, "Malik, Farewell 'Till We Meet Again," Jack Cowart, Corcoran Gallery of Art, 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, "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, Dover, Delaware (Brochure)