Sylvie Zurstrassen

Recent Paintings

Hiding in plain sight beneath the illusionistic surface of Sylvie Zurstrassen’s paintings lies an autonomous world of organic forms refracted and distilled from the keen observation of the natural world, filtered through the eye and sensibility of this supremely talented artist. The multilayered substructure of oblique lines and amorphous shapes creates a scrim of opacity, multiple colors, and drips, behind which we are able to glimpse various elemental forms in nature—from mountains and trees to amoebas and flora—abstracted and apprehended through what at first appears to be a woven textile, painted entirely by hand and often carried out over the course of many weeks. This painstaking method results in a formal examination of painting itself and painting that achieves a level of sophistication that rivals masters such as Agnes Martin, Richard Diebenkorn, and Brice Marden. To engage a work of art by Ms. Zurstrassen is to embark on a visual, spiritual, and emotional journey, but ultimately one of pure aesthetic pleasure.

David del Gaizo

Department of Drawings & Prints

The Metropolitan Museum of Art