Open Air: Artist Talk with Reginald Sylvester II

Join our upcoming virtual talk with internationally acclaimed artist, Reginald Sylvester II, to learn about his paintings, works, and creative process. The emergent young artist's influences range from the Bible, Abstract Expressionism, contemporary design, and the readymade.

Sylvester's first American solo museum exhibition reflects on the charged history of the materials he uses in the creation of his work. Painter's Refuge: A Way of Life - A Solo Exhibition of Recent Work by Reginald Sylvester II is currently on view. Military tent shells – functional, utilitarian objects – serve as the substrate for a transcendent new body of abstract paintings that allude to shelter, protection, and refuge. The son of a U.S. veteran, Sylvester's use of military tents also connects with the familial.

Learn more about Sylvester in a recent Artsy article, Rising Painter Reginald Sylvester II Finds Refuge in Abstraction by Jewels Dodson.

About Open Air

Open Air is a monthly series of virtual studio visits and intimate conversations with Black contemporary artists across the United States. Join us monthly as we celebrate a featured artist in one of our latest exhibitions.

Reginald Sylvester II (b. 1987, North Carolina, USA) is an American artist working predominantly in abstraction. Questioning his position as an artist in a time of moral crises, Sylvester seeks to integrate his personal politics within his art practice to create work which is rooted in social realities and guided by his spirituality. Many of his paintings are large-scale, featuring gestural mark making with layers of paint applied in a physically demanding process. Recently, Sylvester has begun experimenting with new materials, including rope, ex-military material, and rubber. Like assemblage artists before him, Sylvester is interested in the tactility of these materials and the histories they signify, in this way he moves beyond painting into the realm of object making.

Sylvester's work is held in public collections including the ICA Miami, Florida; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, UK; Spazio 1, Lugano, Switzerland; and Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy. His work is featured in the forthcoming publication Prime: Art's Next Generation, London: Phaidon. Recent solo exhibitions include With the End in Mind, Maximillian William, London (2021), NEMESIS, Maximillian William, London (2019); and The Rise and Fall of a People, Fondazione Stelline, Milan (2017).

Dexter Wimberly is an independent curator and entrepreneur who has organized exhibitions and developed programs with galleries and institutions throughout the world including The Third Line in Dubai; Contemporary Art Museum CAM Raleigh in North Carolina; The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco; Koki Arts in Tokyo; and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times, Artforum, and Hyperallergic; and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Wimberly has also served as Director of Strategic Planning at Independent Curators International in New York City.

Prior to his curatorial career, Wimberly was the managing partner and CEO of the advertising agency, August Bishop, representing a diverse array of clients, including Adidas, The Coca-Cola Company and, HBO. Wimberly is a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art. He is also the founder of ART WORLD CONFERENCE, a business and financial literacy conference for visual artists. He and ART WORLD CONFERENCE co-organizer, Heather Bhandari were recently listed in the Observer's "Arts Power 50: Changemakers Shaping the Art World in 2019.”