December 2013

The Corrections: Prisons and Mental Hospitals

Sanabria is drawn to the walls and spaces of old buildings by the perception that they are filled with and colored by the spiritual remnants of the lives lived in them. Thus, they are haunted by such memories, heavy with the presence of the past. She wishes to draw the viewer into the painting to discover the mystery there, by creating the illusion of structure, light and space, coupled with a sense of quiet and timelessness.

The Corrections: Prisons and Mental Hospitals are images of historic buildings where many people were often held for months, years and sometimes for life. Sanabria uses the word “corrections” with irony because I doubt many were corrected at these institutions.

Born in Washington, DC, Sherry Zvares Sanabria holds a BA from The George Washington University, and a MFA from The American University. She is an artist of national and international reputation; for most of her career the focus of her luminous paintings has been those spaces and locales where people have experienced profound moments in their lives, places that seem to hold the spirits of those who inhabited them.

During her professional life she has had 30 solo exhibitions at public and private spaces, including the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; The American Institute of Architects, Washington, DC; Ellis Island Immigration Museum, New York; Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, MD, as well as at galleries in Washington, DC, Virginia, Georgia, New Jersey and New York City.

Visit Sanabria’s website at www.sherrysanabria.com.