Sonya Sklaroff
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Born in Philadelphia, Sklaroff attended the prestigious Friends' Central School
Friends' Central School
Friends' Central School is a college-preparatory, Quaker, coeducational day school for nursery through grade 12 located in Wynnewood, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
before going on to earn her BFA
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
from the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
(RISD). While at RISD, Sklaroff won the Providence Art Award and was selected for the European Honors Program, where she studied under Friedrich St.Florian. Sklaroff later earned her MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
from the Parsons School of Design in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where she studied under Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold is an African American artist, best known for her painted story quilts. She is professor emeritus in the University of California, San Diego visual art department.-Life and artwork:...
and Glenn Goldberg. While a student at Parsons, Sklaroff received a grant from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...
, the World Views program, which provided her an artists studio on the 91st floor of Tower 1 of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
.
Work
Sklaroff's early works were primarily on representational views of cityscapes and landscapes with a focus on the relationship between negative spaceNegative space
Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real"...
, complementary colors, and contrast between light and dark. More recent works, while still exploring these themes, have included greater detail and more prominently feature scenes including people and traffic. A 2009 New York exhibition of Sklaroff's work is reviewed in the Winter 2010 edition of American Arts Quarterly, which wrote, "What gives her work its unique interest and power is her clever sense of color contrasts, along with reflections of light, depictions of shadows and smoky atmospheres."
The American Arts Quarterly article also noted, "Although she also paints country landscapes and interiors, she is best known for her images of New York City." Her cityscapes are particularly noted for her inclusion of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's water tower
Water tower
A water tower or elevated water tower is a large elevated drinking water storage container constructed to hold a water supply at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system....
s, which display an almost anthropomorphic character. Many of her landscape paintings have been produced either in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, where she visits Monhegan Island or nearby areas almost annually, or the American Southwest, where she has been an artist in residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute.
Sklaroff is the subject of an eight page article in the April 2010 issue of American Artist magazine; the article, written by Linda S. Price, is titled Approaching Art with the Intensity of an Athlete. Sklaroff is quoted as saying, "My theory of being an artist is that I'm an athlete and have to keep in shape all the time, so I'm always painting and drawing--especially figure drawing--to keep my skills up." Echoing the comments in American Arts Quarterly, Price wrote, "Although her work is highly realistic, Sklaroff tends to focus on the abstract shapes when she paints. 'I often lose myself in a painting, forgetting the objects themselves,' she says."
Her work is currently displayed in the Jenkins Johnson Galleries (New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and San Francisco), the Cavalier Galleries (Nantucket, MA and Greenwich, CT), and Galerie Sparts (Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
). Collections with her works include the United States Department of Homeland Security
United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to...
, Fannie Mae, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana–Farber Cancer Institute is part of a Comprehensive Cancer Center designated by the National Cancer Institute. It is a major affiliate of Harvard Medical School and is located in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts.-Overview:...
, the Cahoon Museum of American Art
Cahoon Museum of American Art
The Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, Massachusetts has eight galleries in a 1775 Georgian Colonial home.-Museum:Highlights of the permanent collection include the works of Cape Cod artists Ralph Cahoon and Martha Cahoon and other prominent 19th Century American artwork by Ralph Blakelock,...
, the Consul General of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
), and the Art Bank Program of the US State Department.
Sklaroff was interviewed by MyArtSpace.com in November 2007.
One of Sklaroff's paintings was used as the cover of the Summer 2009 issue of City Journal magazine. Another painting of Sklaroff's is featured on the cover of Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar (poet)
Ravi Shankar is an American poet. He was raised in Manassas, VA. He is the poet-in-residence at Central Connecticut State University and the founding editor of the online journal of the arts, Drunken Boat. His first book, Instrumentality, was published by Cherry Grove in May 2004, and was a...
's Voluptuous Bristle, a book of poetry published by Finishing Line Press in April 2010. Sklaroff is also included in New American Paintings: 15th Anniversary Edition published in early 2010 by Open Studios Press.
Sklaroff's recent exhibitions included a Fall 2010 solo show at the Jenkins Johnson Gallery in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
as well as a solo show in Spring 2011 at Galerie Anagama in Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Sklaroff and her exhibition in Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
were featured in the May 2011 issue of Elle Deco magazine.