Jill Sylvia CV & Artist Statement
Ledger: a solo show by Jill Sylvia May 16th ’07 - June 30th ’07
Catalog, Jill Sylvia selected works 2004-2008 - SEE PDF
Jill Sylvia - CV & Artist Statement
EXHIBITIONS
Individual
Recent Work, Julian Page, London, UK. 2008
Ledger, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, California. 2007
Accounted For, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California. 2004
Swallowed To Skin, Fisher Studio Arts Center Gallery, Bard College, New York. 2001
Group
Close Calls, Headlands Center for the Arts, Saulsalito, CA. 2008
Musée D’Honneur Minuscule, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California. 2007
Maximinimalist, Institute of Visual Arts, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 2007
Drawn, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, California. 2006
Inscape, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, California. 2006
Momentum, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California. 2006
Paper Pushers, Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis, California. 2005
Cream, from the Top, Arts Benicia, Benicia, California. 2005
New California Masters, Works/San José, San José, California. 2005
Master of Fine Arts Exhibition, Herbst Pavilion, San Francisco, California. 2005
By Any Means Un/Necessary, Mission 17, San Francisco, California. 2005
Epic, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California. 2004
SFAI +CCA, Swell Gallery, San Fravera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco. 2004
Continuing M.F.A Exhibition, Diego Rid Show, Falmouth Artists’ Guild, Cape Cod., Massachusetts. 2002
Exhibition de l’École des Arts Lacoste, Lacoste École des Arts, Provence, France. 2001
Exhibition de l’École des Arts Lacoste, Lacoste École des Arts, Provence, France. 2000
Old Masters Through Modern Eyes, Bard College Campus Center, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. 2000
AWARDS
Ella King Torrey Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts, San Francisco Art Institute. 2005
Stanley Landsman Scholarship Award, Bard College. 2000
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Warner, Tonya, “Jill Sylvia: Ledger,” Percolator Magazine, Summer Issue, 2007.
Baker, Kenneth. “Sylvia in San Francisco,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 2007, p.E10.
Feinststein, Lea. “Jill Sylvia: Ledger,” SF Weekly, June 13-19, 2007, p.37.
Brehmer, Debra. “Maximinimalist,” Susceptible to Images: A Milwaukee Art Review, April 2007.
Baker, Kenneth. “Incape, in Oakland,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 19, 2006, p.E10.
Dalky, Victoria. “Paper Transformed,” Sacramento Bee, November 6, 2005, p.TK30.
Chin Lui, Diane. “Pushing the Envelope,” Davis Enterprise, October 20, 2005, p.C4.
Berry, Colin. “Cream From the Top,” Artweek, October 2005, p.13.
Feldman, Melissa. “Cream,” artUS, Issue 10, October/November 2005.
Taylor, Robert. “Show Offers A Taste of the Cream of the College Crop,” Contra Costa Times,
July 29, 2005, p.18.
Bing, Alison, “By Any Means Un/Necessary,” SF Gate, January 2005.
Hanratty, Maureen, “Epic: Southern Exposure’s 14th Annual Juried Exhibition Emerging Artists:
North of King City to South of the Oregon Border,” SF Station, November 2004.
EDUCATION
M.F.A., Sculpture, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco. 2005
B.A., Studio Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. 2001
Jill Sylvia - Artist Statement
Ledger sheets are traditionally used to record the financial transactions of a business or an individual. These papers host the data necessary for accounting information to be compiled, and for analysis in determining profit and loss. They are the material of economics.
In an attempt to understand our need to quantify our transactions, I employ this paper. I use a drafting knife to individually remove tens of thousands of boxes from this paper, leaving behind the lattice of the grid intended to separate the boxes. I involve myself in this routine of trying to make time and labor palpable while communicating its loss. I am concerned with the manner in which this material is recontextualized by way of process, (and consequent futility), and how the resulting voids suggest “that the methods we employ to arrange our world provide more insight into ourselves than that which we seek to organize.”
The skeletal pages drape and accumulate, demarcate the time cost for their creation, and become the buildings for which they have laid the groundwork. Grids are reconstructed using the excised boxes in order to create a new sense, a new value. The boxes become the units of the picture plane, the medium of color fields.
With each piece, the notion of “value” is called into question – be it the value of our quotidian pursuits, the relative value of labor, or the implicit values of economic advancement.