Sylvia Snowden's 'M Street' Paintings Command Space at White Cube New York

"Walk into 'On the Verge,' Sylvia Snowden's new show at White Cube, and the first thing you feel is that the paintings have been waiting for you-not patiently, not politely, but with the pent-up charge of someone about to tell you something you probably won't want to hear. This is especially true of the "M Street" figures. The muscular, whiplashed bodies are feel carved out of paint that's thick enough to bruise if you get too close."

"Stand next to one of these works-especially the Masonite-based canvases from the early decades-and you can feel the paint's physical mass before you've sorted out the figure. The surfaces are not built up so much as engineered: oil pastel and acrylic clotted together into peaks and ridges, the whole surface vibrating with the residue of the artist's hand. The way the pigment buckles and slides across the board has the warped energy of flesh under pressure; the figure is always present, but it's never fixed."

Large-scale paintings present muscular, distorted figures rendered in thick impasto that convey physical presence and struggle. The "M Street" series (1978–1997) forms the exhibition's core, featuring Masonite canvases where oil pastel and acrylic congeal into peaks, ridges, and vibrating surfaces. The surfaces register the artist's hand; pigment buckles and slides like flesh under pressure, so figures read as records of struggle rather than static likenesses. The works underwent careful conservation and restoration, which revitalized impasto compression and release. The presentation marks a first White Cube solo outing in the United States and emphasizes anatomical, non-symbolic embodiment.

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