S...as in Sylvia
Sylvia Netzer
GALLERY I
Sylvia Netzer, “S” as in Sylvia, 2020, High-fired stoneware clay, high-fired glazes, 14 x 18 x 9 inches.
February 12 - March 13, 2022
Opening reception: Saturday, February 12 from 12-6 PM (by appointment)
A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to present S...as in Sylvia, an exhibition of recent work by the sculptor Sylvia Netzer. Produced over three years, Netzer’s new sculptures are high-fire glazed ceramic forms each shaped like the letter “S.” Installed on custom tabletop pedestals designed by the artist, the individual works serpentine across the gallery in another S-shape, the whole echoing its parts.
The works in the exhibition meditate on Netzer’s sense of self as a woman, daughter, wife, artist, and educator. Netzer was born in New York City to observant German-Jewish parents who escaped the increasingly hostile and deadly Nazi regime to find succor in Palestine as refugees in the mid-1930s. Reflecting on the relationship between self and history, Netzer’s new works, with their repeated esses, are assertive and insistent declarations of presence, testaments to intergenerational strength and fortitude.
Coil built, Netzer’s stoneware clay sculptures take form in a way that is not common in the field of ceramics. Sinuous and colorful, they are each unique in shape and size, the largest measuring almost two feet wide and 16 ½ inches high.
Netzer’s early work was predominately in high-fire reduction porcelain, exhibited in large-scale installations for which she is best known. She has only recently begun working again in high-fire reduction ceramics, the works in this exhibition therefore representing something of a homecoming.
Sylvia Netzer received her M.F.A. in sculpture from Columbia University School of Arts. She is a professor and the director of the ceramics program at The City College of New York. Her work is in the collections of Sol LeWitt, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, and many other private and public collections. Netzer’s work has been featured in many publications, including on the cover of Ceramics Monthly and in Three Dimensions: Women Sculptors of the ‘90’s by Charlotte Streifer-Rubenstein; Ceramics: Mastering the Craft by Richard Zakin; Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expressions in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax by Joanne Mattera; Confrontational Ceramics: The Artist as Social Critic by Judith S. Schwartz; and Encaustic: The Complete Guide to Creating Fine Art With Wax by Lissa Rankin. She lives and works in New York City.
View the Press Release here.
View Sylvia Netzer’s page here.
Photography: David Lubarsky