FEBRUARY 9, 2024 KATE MOTHES
All images © Syndie Jimenez
Spirited, assertive, and inquisitive, Sydnie Jimenez’s ceramic figures confidently gaze at the viewer with a range of expressions and styles.
In museums or galleries, artist Sydnie Jimenez never saw figurative sculpture that looked like her or that felt relatable. Taking inspiration from her surroundings where she grew up in north Georgia, then Chicago where she attended the School of the Art Institute, she discovered a love for ceramics as a way to celebrate Black and brown bodies and express individuality, agency, and empathy in a way she didn’t see in art history.
“I’m really interested in how people express themselves through fashion or just the way they hold themselves,” Jimenez says. Hand-building figures from clay, the artist uses coil and pinching techniques starting with the feet. “I don’t usually have an exact idea in mind, so I just start with the shoes, then decide if the figure is wearing a skirt, pants, etc., and then go from there.” The process allows her to work without much restriction, making creative decisions as she sculpts fashion accessories and hairstyles. She then lightly carves the outlines of swimming suits, tattoos, and eyebrows and adds an array glazes.
Jimenez often works alongside her twin sister Haylie Jimenez, an artist using clay and two-dimensional media. “Because of our shared experiences as twins, our work and concepts bounce off each other and push us to create more and interesting things,” she says.[…]
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