My paintings say everything I want to say, I pour everything onto the canvas, it’s all there for you to see and feel” and when you first see her abstract works, you experience the whole range of human emotions. Thick, raw and emotive, she depicts vivid bodies — hunched and distorted — that are simultaneously grotesque and beautiful; executed in vibrant hues that declare lives well-lived despite trials and tribulations. “Because we’re human beings, we all have the same sort of tugs and pushes through life, no matter what the background is, and that’s what I’m painting about.
Born in 1942, Snowden is a leading figure in American abstract expressionism, and her work, often centered around the African American experience, uses gesture and texture to explore themes of trauma, resilience, and humanity. Over six decades, she has forged a distinctive voice in the art world; one that merges personal memory with communal experience, abstraction with portraiture, and grief with beauty. Through her prolific output and dedication to teaching, Snowden has shaped generations of artists and has continually asserted the relevance of Black womanhood and inner life within the broader narrative of modern and contemporary art.
Elueeta Johnson © Sylvia Snowden.
Courtesy Edel Assanti and Franklin Parrasch Gallery
Photography: Andy Keate
Sylvia Snowden grew up in a household that valued education and expression. Encouraged to pursue the arts from a young age, she studied at Howard University, earning her BA and MA degrees under the mentorship of notable African American artists and scholars, including James A. Porter, Lois Mailou Jones, and David C. Driskell. Her formative education laid the foundation for a career grounded in intellectual rigour and expressive freedom. She later continued her studies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris; experiences that broadened her artistic vocabulary and introduced her to global artistic dialogues.
Snowden’s paintings are known for their visceral materiality and emotive power. She applies a variety of mediums, from acrylic to oil pastel, in a free and generous manner, building impasto surfaces that seem to emerge from the canvas itself. This technique results in tactile, sculptural compositions that reject polish in favour of raw expression. The artist describes her paintings as “emotionally honest,” and they often function as abstract portraits — gestural depictions of people, experiences and energies — rather than exact likenesses.
Paula Black © Sylvia Snowden
Courtesy of LYRA Foundation
Photography: David Brook
One of her most acclaimed series of paintings, entitled ‘M Street,’ captures this ethos. Begun in the 1970s after moving to Washington D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood (known for its African American history), the ‘M Street’ features abstract works named after community members. Although these aren’t literal portraits, the pieces represent Snowden’s response to the lives and emotional states of her neighbours, many of whom were affected by economic hardship, racial injustice, and urban transformation. Rather than sentimentalise her subjects, Snowden renders them with empathy and intensity, using thick strokes and dynamic compositions to evoke the weight of lived experience.
‘Paula Black’ (1978) is one of the works from this series, and LYRA is honoured that this extraordinary piece now forms part of our collection, having featured in White Cube’s 2024 Snowden exhibition. LYRA’s acquisition of ‘Paula Black’ typifies our dedication to supporting contemporary artists whose unwavering passion and dedication succeeds in breaking down barriers and challenging the status quo. This colossal work features dense brushstrokes in warm pink, peach and indigo. These colours form the backdrop to Paula Black’s long, dark brown legs, one of which was longer than the other, walking determinedly despite the challenges.
Snowden’s paintings navigate the emotional spectrum of the human condition, tackling themes such as loss, endurance, joy, injustice, and transformation. Her interest in the expressive possibilities of abstraction aligns her with a broader lineage of postwar American painters, but her work is uniquely grounded in the African American experience, particularly Black womanhood. Rather than use abstraction to escape representation, Snowden uses it to deepen it — relying on gesture, colour, and texture to convey not the outer form but the inner state of her subjects.
Sylvia Snowden. © Andy Keate
Her influences are formal and cultural. She cites the spiritual traditions of the Black church, the improvisational nature of jazz, and the communal bonds of African American neighbourhoods as essential sources of inspiration. These elements manifest in her rhythmic brushwork, layered surfaces, and intense, sometimes dissonant colour palettes.
Over the course of her career, Snowden has exhibited widely across the US and internationally, featuring at institutions including The Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the National Gallery of Art. Her inclusion in exhibitions across Europe, Asia, and Australia speaks to the universal resonance of her visual language. Recent retrospectives and exhibitions — including Sylvia Snowden: Painting Humanity at The Hepworth Wakefield (Spring 2024) and Sylvia Snowden: Between Presence and Absence at White Cube Paris (Autumn 2024) — have introduced her work to new audiences and consolidated Snowden’s role as a critical voice in contemporary abstraction.
Sylvia Snowden’s work represents a fusion of abstraction and emotion that defy categorisation. Her career is marked by a persistent commitment to giving form to what is often invisible: inner turmoil, collective grief, personal loss, and enduring hope. Through her textured surfaces and gestural vocabulary, she has redefined the possibilities of abstraction, ensuring that it remains not only aesthetically potent but emotionally urgent. Her impact — as both an artist and educator — continues to reverberate, making her a vital figure in American art history and a highly collectable artist.