Sula Bermudez-Silverman
Sula Bermudez-Silverman (b. 1993, New York) received her BA in Studio Art from Bard College and her MFA in Sculpture from the Yale School of Art. Bermudez-Silverman’s sculptural practice is guided by the contextual origins and contemporary trajectories of her materials. With intensive research, she delves into mythological and historical narratives to examine their imprint. Materials such as sugar, salt, glass, and resin often serve as physical homonyms, altering motifs such as the “ball and claw” through color, scale, and translucency. Bermudez-Silverman also uses contained forms like peepholes, cast in uranium or tinted glass, as a quarantine for the cultural lore surrounding microscopic viruses, patriotic lions, or insect-affected trade routes. By using rare earth minerals, the glass peepholes change color depending on their display lighting. This kind of aesthetic shift works to acknowledge the mining history and desirability of each element. Throughout the entirety of Bermudez-Silverman’s catalog, objects that operate as a physical threshold - windows, saddles, staircases - are reintroduced to connect disparate epistemologies and question how history is camouflaged into the subconscious.
Education
2018 MFA in Sculpture, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2015 BA in Studio Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
2013 Central Saint Martin’s School of Art & Design, London, England
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Bad Luck Rock, Josh Lilley, London
Ichthyocentaur, Matthew Brown, Los Angles, CA
2022
Here Be Dragons, Micki Meng, San Francisco, CA
2021
Sighs and Leers and Crocodile Tears, Murmurs, Los Angeles, CA
2020
Neither Fish, Flesh, nor Fowl, California African American Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2018
Sutures, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2015
Reconstruction, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
Group Exhibitions
2024
Thresholds, Wolford House, Los Angeles, CA
Objects for a Heavenly Cave, Marta, Los Angeles, CA
Overflow, Afterglow: New Work in Chromatic Figuration, Jewish Museum, NY, New York
Lavinia, Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles, CA
2023
Mickalene Thomas / Portrait of an Unlikely Space, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Made in LA 2023: Acts of Living, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
0 Horizon, Sturt Haaga Gallery, Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles, CA
Piano, Piano, Et al., San Francisco, CA
I’ve Gone to Look for America, Murmurs, Los Angeles, CA
Something or Other, Curated by Isabel Yellin, Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich, Switzerland
2022
Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA
Hot Concrete: LA to HK, K11 Musea, Hong Kong, China
Nightmare Bathroom, Del Vaz Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Press Release, Storage, New York, NY
Signals, Someday, New York, NY
Many, Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
Incognito LA, ICA Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Doing Our Own Thing, Japanese American Cultural Community Center, Los Angeles, CA
Gum:Scale, Jack Chiles Gallery, New York, NY
Recent Sculpture, Matthew Brown, Los Angeles, CA
Pas le temps de tout détruire sans doute, Sans Titre (2016), Paris, France
Imago Ignota, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY
Room with a View, Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles, CA
2021
Contramundos, Lodos, Mexico City, Mexico
Feminist Center for Creative Work Auction, Artsy
Enfolding Bloom, Galerie Dengyun, Shanghai, China
Expanded Field, Ochi Aux, Los Angeles, CA
Giving Up the Ghost, Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles, CA
Here We Are In Croydon, Josh Lilley, London, UK
Shining in the Low Tide, Unclebrother, Hancock, NY
Desire Encapsulated, Make Room, Los Angeles, CA
Ring Down the Curtain, Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2020
Baker’s Dozen, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
2019
Technotihuacan, Failed Films Fest, Los Angeles, CA
Technotihuacan, Outsider Fest, Austin, TX
2018
Technotihuacan, SOMArts, San Francisco, CA
Table for Eleggua, Table for Elijah, Yale MFA Thesis Twenty Ears, New Haven, CT
2017
Odds and Ends Art Book Fair, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Litter Mates, Liar’s Lair, New Haven, CT
Say-So, EIK Gallery, New Haven, CT
Rumba Rumba, Kimba Hills Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
19 Things You Won’t Believe You Didn’t Know, Los Angeles, CA
2016
Black Joy, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Unsafe Colors, Studio 106, Santa Monica, CA
Lost Wax, As It Stands, Los Angeles, CA
Stone Palace, Stone Palace, Los Angeles, CA
2015
Home Body, UBS Bard College Exhibition Center, Red Hook, NY
2014
Plan View: Four Cities, Arts Society of Kingston, Kingston, NY
Artist’s Books and Cookies, Ooga Twooga, Los Angeles, CA
Junior Prom, Atwater Gallery, Rhinebeck, NY
Press
CV
Exhibitions
Altar States
Group Show
Bad Luck Rock
Solo Show