Sylvia Snowden: Painting Humanity at the Hepworth Wakefield

This spring, the Hepworth Wakefield hosts the first public gallery exhibition in Europe from African-American expressionist painter Sylvia Snowden.

Painting Humanity features works from the last six decades of the artist’s career, including large-scale earlier works as well as more recent ones. Best known for her impasto paint application and vibrant colour combinations on white backgrounds, the works are full of life as they hover between abstraction and figuration. Contorted bodies barely fit in their frames and their vibrant hues seem to jump out at the viewer. 

The exhibition includes works from the M Street series, inspired by the time Snowden lived in the Shaw district of Washington D.C. The paintings are titled after the residents (Beverly Johnson, Elueeta Johnson, Julia Shepherd and Steven Thornhill). Despite this being a form of commemoration for her neighbours, the artist emphasises that there is little connection between the figures depicted and the subject’s stories. Instead, she focuses on that which is universally human: triumphs, torments, joys and pains. The artist describes the works as capturing the psychological states of her models and more broadly, she does not limit her works to singular subjects but rather uses them as catalysts to comment on the human condition. 

Born in 1942, Snowden studied under distinguished African American artists and art historians at Howard University during the civil rights movements in the 1960s which she was deeply invested in. Despite the guidance she received during her studies, it was her parents’ support that enabled her to keep painting as a young single mother, and hone her techniques and style. 

Today, her paint application and sense of colour is unmistakably hers – she paints on the floor to make it easier to apply paint in her signature thick layers. Large and visceral, one thing’s  for sure – digital renditions do not do them justice, so if you can, do visit them in person.