Sonya Sklaroff

Five Water Towers at Dusk, oil on panel, 30x30

Sonya Sklaroff (November 7, 1970 – present) is a contemporary American painter best known for her cityscapes of New York City.

Born in Philadelphia, Sklaroff attended the prestigious Friends' Central School before going on to earn her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). While at RISD, Sklaroff won the Providence Art Award and was selected for the European Honors Program, where she studied under Friedrich St.Florian. Sklaroff later earned her MFA from the Parsons School of Design in New York City where she studied under Faith Ringgold and Glenn Goldberg. While a student at Parsons, Sklaroff received a grant from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the World Views program, which provided her an artists studio on the 91st floor of Tower 1 of the World Trade Center.

Work

Sklaroff's early works were primarily on representational views of cityscapes and landscapes with a focus on the relationship between negative space, complementary colors, and contrast between light and dark. More recent works, while still exploring these themes, have included greater detail and more prominently feature scenes including people and traffic. A 2009 New York exhibition of Sklaroff's work was reviewed in the Winter 2010 edition of American Arts Quarterly, which wrote, "What gives her work its unique interest and power is her clever sense of color contrasts, along with reflections of light, depictions of shadows and smoky atmospheres." [1]

The American Arts Quarterly also noted, "Although she also paints country landscapes and interiors, she is best known for her images of New York City." Her cityscapes are particularly noted for her inclusion of New York City's water towers, which display an almost anthropomorphic character. Many of her landscape paintings have been produced either in Maine or the American Southwest, where she has been an artist in residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute.[2]

Sklaroff was the subject of an eight page article in the April 2010 issue of American Artist magazine; the article, written by Linda S. Price, is titled Approaching Art with the Intensity of an Athlete. Sklaroff is quoted as saying, "My theory of being an artist is that I'm an athlete and have to keep in shape all the time, so I'm always painting and drawing--especially figure drawing--to keep my skills up." Price continued, "Although her work is highly realistic, Sklaroff tends to focus on the abstract shapes when she paints. 'I often lose myself in a painting, forgetting the objects themselves,' she says." [3] Interviewed by the Providence Journal in May 2012, Sklaroff discussed her interest in New York's unique architectural landscape and spoke more of her use of light. She said, "Trying to capture the shifting effects of light is one of the most challenging things a painter can do."[4]

Collections with her works include the Phillips Museum of Art, the United States Department of Homeland Security, Fannie Mae, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Cahoon Museum of American Art, the Consul General of France (in New York City), and the Art Bank Program of the US State Department.

One of Sklaroff's paintings was used as the cover of the Summer 2009 issue of City Journal magazine.[5] Another painting of Sklaroff's was featured on the cover of Ravi Shankar's Voluptuous Bristle in April 2010.[6] Sklaroff was also included in New American Paintings: 15th Anniversary Edition published in early 2010 by Open Studios Press. Sklaroff was interviewed by MyArtSpace.com in November 2007.[7] Her work is also featured on a series of cards from Bayview Press.[8]

Sklaroff has an upcoming exhibition at Sparts Gallery in Paris in March 2016, her fifth solo show with Sparts. Her work was on exhibition at the Galerie Anagama in Versailles, France in early 2015, her second show there. A previous Sklaroff exhibition in Versailles was featured in the May 2011 issue of Elle Deco magazine.

Sklaroff is interviewed in the short documentary film Water from Above, released in May 2012.[9] She is also featured in Pierre Oertel's to-be-released documentary film, New York Art City.

In 2014, an artist monograph of Sklaroff's work was published in France with a forward by Harlan Coben. A North American release is planned for late 2015.

References

  1. ↑ American Arts Quarterly, review of Sonya Sklaroff, accessed on December 22, 2013
  2. ↑ New York Times, For Artists, A Sanctuary From Sept. 11; A Santa Fe Program Offers Time and Space, January 23, 2002
  3. ↑ American Artist, Approaching Art with the Intensity of an Athlete , April 2010, Accessed December 22, 2013
  4. ↑ Providence Journal, Sklaroff: I Love the Light in New York, Accessed December 22, 2013
  5. ↑ City Journal, summer 2009, Accessed December 22, 2013
  6. ↑ Voluptuous Bristle on Amazon.com, Access December 22, 2013
  7. ↑ MyArtSpace.com is now defunct, copy of interview at the Internet Archive, accessed December 22, 2013
  8. ↑ Bayview Press, About Our Artists: Sonya Sklaroff, Accessed December 22, 2013
  9. ↑ Water from Above (password required)

External links

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