March 18, 2020

Q&A | Reginald Sylvester II at James Fuentes Gallery

by Morgan Vickery

On March 3rd, Reginald Sylvester II opened his solo show at New York’s James Fuentes Gallery. Over the past year and a half, Reginald transitioned to abstract painting, creating a range of works that embody archeology and alchemy of energy and environment. In a Q&A, Flaunt spoke with Sylvester II, discussing the series and his overall balance of spirituality and abstraction.

This body of work is based on energy and environment, what do you hope audiences take away from the show?

This body of work is based on the transference of energy, yes and the conditions in which I’m working in. If anything I want audiences to think and feel a bit deeper than usual. I feel abstraction is a great place to allow others to do this.

What inspired your shift towards the abstract?

The relationship between abstraction and faith.

You wrote previously about the importance of a non-conventional home. What does that mean to you, and how does your home or work-space inform your art?

It means everything. My work in a sense is my life so both spaces should nourish my thinking, creativity, and the way in which I exist. It’s not only limited to ones objects within those spaces but people as well. Energies (spirits) reflect and deflect. In other words the people you allow to inhabit these spaces also in some way inform you and your output.

You've spoken about your spirituality, and how it appears in the work you make, and guides you towards certain paths. Could you elaborate on the influence it may have had on this exhibit?

Abstraction for me is a painterly way of faith. They come from the unconscious which I believe to be the soul. I have the belief that true abstraction is worked for, hoped for. You arrive at a particular image— it isn’t predestined or foreseen. Scriptures say Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. This in turn influences the way in which I arrive at new images.

What can we expect of you going forward?

As I create I’ll arrive at new processes that will inform new imagery. I’m really into objects and furniture so you will see a lot more of that from me. I don’t plan on staying anywhere I am only interested in evolution.