Exhibitions

Salon Highlight: Cydney Camp

September 25- November 11, 2021

Artwork Images

Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to present our latest Salon Highlight installment featuring a series of unique works by Cydney Camp. The Detroit-based artist imbues her works with an aura of power and tranquility through a vibrant color palette, often introducing elements of abstraction to form dreamlike compositions. Many of her scenes reflect moments of peace among Black figures, positioning leisure as an act of protest against marginalization, particularly in regards to Black femininity. The show highlights a series of oil paintings on paper surrounding ideas of development and acceptance.

For Camp, the past year and a half has been a monumental period of change, growth, and self-realization within both her personal and professional lives. The series of paintings included in the Salon Highlight tell a story about transition and embody the abundance of fluctuating emotions that are inherently felt in response to such adjustment. They focus on what the artist refers to as “the in-between state,” or the existence amid one way of being and another way of being, and examine what life is like within that space: “Some days it’s really scary, some days it’s rewarding, other days you might feel sad, you might feel confused, you might feel exhilarated, you might feel like you want to escape from it all.” In this environment of flux, Camp initially found herself wanting to rebel against and deny the rapid shifts that were occurring in the unfamiliar world around her. However, as time went on, she began to embrace a state of open-mindedness and acceptance for what’s ahead. Featuring a range of tones, hues, and textures, the series of paintings are a direct reflection of Camp’s vacillating mental state over the prolonged period of time.

Having spent much time experimenting in the studio as a self-taught artist, Camp relies on oil paint as her medium of choice. The physical act of mark-making with oil paint is therapeutic for Camp. As she describes it, “oil paint is so fluid, I love the feel of the brush on the canvas; you can really control the consistency—sometimes it’s more silky, other times you have the ability to really build up a texture with a lot of body and tell different stories within that.” The featured paintings are not shy of texture, as they were developed through a process of creation and destruction: Camp employed a technique of waiting for the painting to dry then revisiting it with a new idea or perspective, sometimes allowing certain elements of the underlying layer to show through, and other times eliminating the underlying layer entirely. This idea of destroying or letting go of the old in order to make space for something new and better is a driving force within Camp’s artistic practice, as well as a metaphor for her promising outlook on life.

Salon Highlight: Cydney Camp is on view from September 25 through November 11, 2021.