Thierry Goldberg is pleased to present When We See Us, the first solo exhibition of Sydney Vernon. The exhibition will run from March 8th through April 5th, with an opening reception on Sunday, March 8th, from 6–8pm.

Family is at the forefront of Sydney Vernon’s solo debut, as scenes and characters in her works on paper are pulled from photographs of her immediate relatives. The familial artifacts span over 40 years, extending back to before Vernon was born, and allow the artist to connect to specific moments in history and reflect on the context of the world at the time the images were created. The past never passes for Vernon, and its influences are shaped and reconsidered in current time.

Vernon draws inspiration from these family photographs, as well as stories from her parents and sister, which can then wind up being amalgamated with her present day cultural experiences. The materiality of the work reflects this accumulative process, with pieces like “When We See Us” often containing collaged elements in addition to myriad mark-making materials like charcoal, pastel, and screenprints.

Despite the specificity of their source material, there remains an ineffable universality in Vernon’s works. Pieces like “Water Damage”, where details of a tender pose are rendered just out of focus, call to mind the fragility and impreciseness of our memories. By sharing her own personal narratives, Vernon helps audiences reconstruct relative realities that consider the little everyday experiences that tend to matter more than we realize in the moment.

Sydney Vernon (b.1995, Prince George’s County, MD) lives and works in New York, NY. She is working toward her BFA from The Cooper Union, New York, NY. Her work was previously exhibited at Thierry Goldberg Gallery, NY; Peg Alston Fine Arts, New York, NY; Prince George’s County African American Museum and Cultural Center, Brentwood, MD; and The White Room, Washington, DC.
