Powdered Pearls, 2017

Miami Beach 2017
Powdered Pearls

Franklin Parrasch Gallery

Mixed Media
Oil, acrylic, cloth, colored pencil, pastel, beads, and glitter on canvas
137.0 x 91.5 （厘米）
53.9 x 36.0 （吋）
The three recent paintings here by JoanSnyder make use of her poetic and inventivevisual vernacular to articulate a wide range ofabstract and concrete messages. The works,all painted in the last 12 months, reflect adecidedly new direction in her oeuvre, whichnow spans over 50 years. ‘These paintings areabout pain, love, suffering, joy, freedom. But asthey happen, as I paint, they become poetic,beautiful, delicate, almost sublime,’ Snyderwrites. Using a plethora of media, includingpaints, glitter, beads, etching rags, flowers,paper, and seeds, Snyder shares ‘messagesthat can’t be read nor spoken aloud, andthat break apart, using all the iconographydeveloped over the five decades of herpractice: totems, angels, female figures, nests,openings, breasts, strokes, lines, marks,words.’ Though many have long labeled Snydera feminist artist, she shirks from this moniker,frustrated with the limitations it assumes.By virtue of Snyder’s imagery and language,and their essentially universal nature, theseworks transmute and transform for the viewer,ultimately taking on a sublime life of their own.