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Sylvia Crain

Biography

Sylvia is an explorer at heart and grounded in the natural world. She often travels by motorcycle or explores with no specific plan – taking the world as it comes. This allows her to capture spontaneously the images that catch her eye. For Sylvia, the grace of the natural world is a necessary escape to rejuvenate her spirits and keep the difficulties of our world in perspective. Her imagery is rooted in this escape into sanity, drawing on her inquisitive nature and background in the sciences.

She loves the process of finding images in the field and bringing them to life in the darkroom, and most recently in the digital darkroom. Artistically influenced by the abstraction and contrast in the work of Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, and Edward Weston and the form and color of the early 20th century European modernists, Sylvia merges these ideas into her work.

Primarily self-taught, Sylvia's images are unified by form, contrast, and color; the relationship of people and objects to their environment; and the surprise and joy in the world in which we live.

Her work is in public and private collections, on music book covers and has been used in New Mexico Magazine, Albuquerque the Magazine, ABQ Arts, THE Magazine, Dallas Morning News, Road Trip, Cycle News, Vintage Views, The Rio Rancho Observer and the Albuquerque Journal.

Image of Sylvia Crain Image courtesy Mark Parsons

Exhibitions and Awards

"A Year or So in the Life of New Mexico", Book and exhibition to support Esperanza Shelter. Launch Party, July 7, 2011, The Center for Progress and Justice, Santa Fe, NM.

2011 Photo New Mexico", July 1 - 30, 2011, Matrix Fine Arts, Albuquerque, NM.

"Gateway to Imagination", May 7 - July 10, 2010, Farmington Museum at Gateway Park, Farmington, NM.

High and Dry", November 20th, 2009 - January 15, 2010. International Cultural Center, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX and February 11 - April 17, 2010. UTEP Centennial Museum, El Paso, TX.

"Annual New Mexico Photographic Art Show (ANMPAS)", December 5 - 27, 2009. Fine Arts Building, EXPO New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.

"Six Shooters - Six New Mexico Photographers", December 11 - 13, 2009. 1228 Parkway Art Space, Santa Fe, NM.

"Collective Expression", a solo exhibition at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lubbock, TX. February 5 - 28, 2009.

Editors Choice Photo Contest, July 2008, ABQ Arts Magazine.

"Photo NM", July 5 - 26, 2008, Matrix Fine Art, Albuquerque, NM.

"Gateway to Imagination ", May 10 - July 26, 2008, Farmington Museum at Gateway Park, Farmington, NM.

"Abstractions - Images of the Natural World", a solo exhibition at the 14th Street Gallery, Plano, Texas. February 2 - March 21, 2008.

"High and Dry", November 16, 2007 - January 18, 2008 - International Cultural Center, Texas Tech University

"Give Us Your Best Shot", January 10 - February 10, 2007, Benham Gallery, Seattle, WA

"High and Dry", Honorable Mention, November 10, 2006 - January 17, 2007, International Cultural Center, Texas Tech University

"National Photography '06 Exhibition", October 26, 2006 - November 26, 2006, The Main Street Gallery, Groton, NY

Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards 2006, Honorable Mention

"Biennial Southwest", September 10, 2006 - January 7, 2007, The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM (catalog available)

"Gateway to Imagination", May 6 - July 15, 2006, Farmington Museum at Gateway Park, Farmington, NM

"Not to Scale", April 19 - May 28, 2006, Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA

Public Collections

"David F. Cargo El Valle de Anton Chico Library , State of New Mexico Art in Public Places Purchase Award, 2009.

 

Newsletters and Postcards

December 2009

January 2009

June 2008

January 2008

August 2006

March 2006

All contents © Sylvia Crain
Unauthorized reproduction or use of these images is strictly forbidden.