Sylvia Lark
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| Born | 1947
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
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| Died | December 27, 1990
Berkeley, California, U.S.
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| Resting place | Mountain View Memorial Park, Lakewood, Washington, U.S. |
| Nationality | Seneca, United States |
| Occupation(s) | painter, curator, professor |
| Movement | Abstract expressionism |
| Spouse | Stephen M. Chase[1] |
| Children | 1[1] |
| Awards | Fulbright grant (1977); CAA Award for Distinction (1991) |
| Website | www |
Sylvia Lark (1947–1990) was a Native American/Seneca artist,[2][3] curator, and educator. She best known as an Abstract expressionist painter and printmaker.[4][5] Lark lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years.
Lark was born in 1947 in Buffalo, New York.[6] She went to high school at Nardin Academy in Buffalo.[7] Lark attended school at the University of Siena; University at Buffalo (formally State University of New York, Buffalo) where she received her B.A. degree in 1969; Mills College; and the University of Wisconsin–Madison where she received her M.A. degree in 1970 and M.F.A. degree in 1972.[8][1][9]
Starting in 1972, Lark taught art at California State University, Sacramento where she remained until 1976.[1] In 1977, she received a Fulbright-Hays Program grant and traveled and study in Korea and Japan.[8] Lark taught at the University of California, Berkeley from 1977 until 1990.[1] Students of Lark's included Shirin Neshat.[10] She was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award for teaching studio art by the College Art Association posthumously in 1991.[8]
Her early work used symbols and patterns, and there was a shift in her later career with more abstraction and overlapping colors with delicate textured surfaces.[9] She painted in oils and encaustics and printed monotypes.[1] Her 1983 painting series Jokhang, featured many textures and layers of colors painted over or under black leaves.[5][2] This series was a response to her visit to Jokhang TempleinLhasa and her study of Tibetan spirituality.[2] Lark was curator of the exhibition, Prints: New Points of View (1978) at the Open Ring Galleries in Sacramento.[11]
In 1992, she was the second inductee into Nardin Academy's Alumnae Hall of Fame.[7] Lark had served on the National Board of the Women's Caucus for Art from 1978 to 1984; and was the Regional Coordinator for the Coalition of Women's Art Organization from 1978 to 1990.[1]
Lark died on cancer at the age of 43 in Berkeley on December 27, 1990.[8]
Her works are in the museum collections at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,[12] Metropolitan Museum of Art,[13] Crocker Art Museum, Sheldon Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California,[14] and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[14]
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