NEW YORK, NY.- Nancy Margolis Gallery announced its second solo exhibition for Swedish painter Sylvia Naimark, Night Transfigured. The exhibition is being presented in the gallery's online Viewing Room November 5th through January 8th.
Sylvia Naimarks new body of work, Night Transfigured, comprises eleven oil paintings that communicate a coherent yet nonlinear narrative. Her haunting representations of atmospheres and figures convey the mystical, melancholic quality of Nordic light.
Naimarks paintings are not evocative of objects or places in themselves; rather, the painting itself is the place and not an image of a place, but the whole reality. In Untitled, an effusion of deep violets and blues triumphantly asserts itself against the raw canvas background. Pocket I and Transfigured Night captivate viewers through a duality of light and dark. Here, Naimarks use of texture, color, and form provoke inward, emotional responses.
While some paintings suggest figurationsuch as Afternoon Park, Stair, and GlassesNaimark relies on nonrepresentational sensibilities. Her works reach toward something transient yet precise. Counterpoint, for instance, is a stormy-gray composition, its surface reverberating with circles in contrasting hues. In Breathturn, a pale wash settles over an ashy foreground, appearing to ripple and change shape. Lonely Cloud, Forest, and The Other Side depict faint lines and contours of forms that gradually emerge, guiding us further into the works. These paintings point to Naimarks interest in her materials: paint is scraped, washed, and reworked. The visceral effect of her slowly built-up, textural surfaces elicits an enticing dialogue between the spectator and Naimarks worlds.
For Sylvia Naimark, only what changes is real.
Sylvia Naimark (b. 1955, Malmö, Sweden) studied at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design (Stockholm), Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (Jerusalem), and Stockholm University of the Arts (Stockholm). She has had solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally, including Washington D.C., New York City, Paris, Stockholm, and Gothenburg. Naimark was assigned the National Swedish commission for the arts in 2016 and 2017, and she was awarded a grant from The Foundation Längmanska Kulturfonded in 2017. Naimark has artwork in numerous public collections, including Landskrona Museum (Landskrona, Sweden); Eksjö Museum (Eksjö, Sweden); and Stockholm City Council (Stockholm, Sweden).