"As we go on through life's challenges and voids, maybe the only answer is to make magic."
Cate McQuaid, "Making magic at Fountain Street Gallery," Boston Globe
April 6-30, 2023 at Fountain Street gallery in Boston - "What We Make of This World," my show with Melissa Shaak. We have transformed the stuff of our lives into invented worlds in video and sculpture. Melissa, in her videos, personifies a "seeker" who responds to puzzling situations in the landscape. My sculpture, with its unpredictable mix of materials, reflects cycles of creation, decline, grief, and peace. Opening reception April 7, 5-8pm at 460C Harrison Ave, Boston MA.
Go to Exhibit Page for Images and Audioscapes
[L] Shaak, Homage to Nam June Paik; [R] Vander Sluis, Life is Messy (detail)
Sylvia Vander Sluis has two sculptural works in "Form and Emptiness," a Core Member show at Fountain Street Gallery from December 1, 2022 to January 15, 2023. The gallery is at 460C Harrison Ave, Unit 2, Boston, MA in the SoWa arts district.
Image: Hideout, mixed media, 54 x 24 x 21 inches
Sylvia Vander Sluis exhibited two sculptural works in "72nd A-One" at the Silvermine Arts Center, with jurist Sharon Butler. The exhibit ran September 3-October 20, 2022 at 1037 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, CT.
Image: Axis Mundi, mixed media 87.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 inches
Shown installed at Silvermine Arts Center
Sylvia Vander Sluis had work in "Intimacies, an exhibition of Crit Lab Artists celebrating the intimate - small of stature, big of heart," curated by Gaby Collins-Fernandez and Patricia Miranda. The exhibit was held March 19 - May 22, 2022 at MAPspace, a miranda arts project space located in Port Chester, NY.
Image: My Job Is to Adjust (detail), mixed media, 9.5 x 6.5 x 5 inches
Vander Sluis will present her work, To Have and to Hold, in "Build and Lay Bare," an Associate Members Group Exhibition at Boston Sculptors Gallery, 486 Harrison Ave, Boston MA. The show will be open January 26 - February 20, 2022.
Artists' Reception: Saturday, January 29, 2-5pm
First Friday: Friday, February 4, 5-8:30pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, February 20, 2-5pm
Sylvia Vander Sluis’ sculpture, Resting Head, will be in “Recumbent: The Art of Lying,” an exhibit at the New York Artists Equity Association & Equity Gallery, 245 Broome Street, New York, NY. Exhibit dates: Sept. 8 - October 2 with an outdoor opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 9 from 6 - 8pm.
Virginia Mahoney + Sylvia Vander Sluis
June 2–27, 2021
SoWa First Friday: June 4. 5-8PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 12, 4PM
Attend in-person or via Zoom (a recording will be available). Check the website for the Zoom link closer to the event.
Additional Events
LIVE at FIVE: Artist Chat Live on Instagram: Sunday, June 6, 5PM
Meet the Artists
Virginia Mahoney: Saturday, June 12, 12-4PM
Sylvia Vander Sluis: Saturday, June 19, 12-4PM
Artist Blog: Excerpts from a Conversation
"We are inspired by the inherent qualities of the materials we choose, we exploit those attributes, and use them for the conceptual weight they bring to our work." - V. Mahoney + S. Vander Sluis
"My upcoming show will feature raw, emotional constructions formed with incongruous materials. I explore the coexistence of pain and joy by putting disparate materials in tension with one another. Inspired by the folds of rosin paper, the transparency of cheesecloth, and the grit of gravel, I create metaphors for the dualities of life. In Relationship, plaster gauze holds Styrofoam precariously on structures of willow branches." - Sylvia Vander Sluis
Fountain Street Gallery
Thursday-Sunday from 12-4PM in June
SoWa Art + Design District of Boston
460C Harrison Ave. #2, Boston, MA 02118
www.fsfaboston.com
I am pleased to have work in Boston Sculptors Gallery with a group of outstanding artists: “Becoming: Inaugural Associate Members’ Group Exhibition” runs January 27-February 21, 2021. On exhibit is my sculpture, Somber Skin with Trap, 80H x 40W x 38D inches. Cheesecloth, acrylic, string, chicken wire.
Sylvia Vander Sluis has been selected as an Associate Member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery, 486 Harrison Ave., Boston MA. The 2020 Associate Members are the inaugural cohort for this membership level at the gallery. A group exhibition is planned for early 2021.
A Virtual Exhibition curated by Sylvia Vander Sluis, is on view at Fountain Street Gallery's website https://www.fsfaboston.com/, The collection is featured June 22-July 5, 2020. Fountain Street is located at 460C Harrison Avenue, Boston MA.
"Disruption can transform us. Jogged out of our usual paths, we reexamine what is around us and within us. Taking time for inner stillness, we reflect on what we value. We try new ways of operating in the world and come to know ourselves anew.
In this collection are works that read as reflections – on struggles, interconnectedness, and the nature of change. There is hope in the vitality of what Denise Driscoll, Leslie Zelamsky, Anne Sargent Walker, Sara Fine Wilson, Katherine Borkowski-Byrne, and Melissa Shaak have created. Each artist has demonstrated the transformative promise of the human spirit."
Sylvia Vander Sluis has work in Please Touch the Art, at the Mosesian Center for the Arts from May 23-September 6, 2019. Vander Sluis has collaborated with other members of the Surface Design Association MA/RI chapter on a group fiber piece.
Sylvia Vander Sluis has work in Unconventional, a juried exhibition at the Davis Art Gallery in the Printers Building, Worcester MA. The exhibit will run June 7-August 16, 2019.
Sylvia Vander Sluis is quoted, and her artwork is featured, in this coverage of Fountain Street gallery's exhibit "Breaking the Rules."
Vander Sluis's fiber work, "Clothing Relic 2" was juried into the "2018: RED" Exhibition presented by the Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA. Exhibit runs Nov 8 - Dec 20, 2018.
Sylvia Vander Sluis's fabric sculpture, "Choice Without Violence," will be in Breaking the Rules, a Core Members' Group Show at Fountain Street gallery in Boston, MA. The exhibit will run November 28-December 23 with an Opening Reception on Friday, December 7 from 6-8pm.
Sylvia Vander Sluis will show several fiber works in a group show of The Women's Caucus for Art. The Opening is Sat, October 6, 2-4pm. Exhibit runs October 6-December 1.