Sharon Norwood’s Drawing Room is the first solo exhibition in New York by artist Sharon Norwood, curated by Dr. Petrina Dacres, ISCP’s 2022 Jane Farver Memorial Fund resident.

Norwood works with several media including painting, printmaking and ceramic. Drawing inspiration from the shape of Black hair, her work’s starting point is often a curly line. In her abstract prints and paintings, she intertwines organic lines to act as gestural markings; in her ceramic sculptures and installations, the curly line surfaces in interwoven geometric shapes. Norwood’s formal gestures symbolically reference the Black body and its relationship to politics of labor, beauty and race. 

In this exhibition, Norwood uses her own hair as material for the first time. A wall installation features two cast statuettes of African American boys, connected by a silver chain necklace. Norwood’s hair is encased in a resin ring on a gold necklace that hangs from the arm of one of the figures. The figures’ molds were found by the artist in Savannah, Georgia, leading Norwood to conclude that there was once an industry of Black craftsmakers who sold their decorative objects to a largely African American community. The minimal and intimate work in the exhibition offers recognition of an unacknowledged history of Black artisans in the United States, and connects Norwood’s own experience as an artist and maker of objects to that tradition.

Click here to download text by exhibition curator Dr. Petrina Dacres (PDF).

Sharon Norwood is originally from Jamaica and migrated to Canada as a child. She creates works that exploit the decorative intentions and joy of mark-making and gesturing, disrupt the White gaze and other passive notions of viewing “the other,” and question standing narratives and systems that shape how identities are understood. In recent years, she has explored the intersection of the Black body and decorative arts by translating her drawings onto porcelain objects. Norwood has participated in a number of residencies and fellowships including at McColl Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Hambidge Center, Georgia. She has exhibited work at The Museum of Washington and Lee University, Lexington; Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami; and Tempus Projects, Tampa, among others.

Dr. Petrina Dacres is an independent curator and founding member of Tide Rising Art Projects, an organization created to support and promote contemporary Caribbean art and film, where she serves as its resident Curator and Education Director. Her work and research focus on Caribbean art; African diaspora art; public sculpture and memorials; and memory studies. Dr. Dacres has organized exhibitions at Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, New York; The National Museum, Jamaica, Kingston; and National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, among others. She is Head of the Art History Department at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, and the 2022 Jane Farver Curatorial Resident at ISCP.

Sharon Norwood’s Drawing Room is supported in part by Jane Farver Memorial Fund; Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.