SYDNEY ALBERTINI
b. 1973, FranceSydney Albertini’s colourful, abstract pieces are full of energy and movement, examining how she as a multidisciplinary artist interacts with society. “In my world of meaningful play with its self-imposed rules,” she has said, “each series of pieces is never quite closed as the work is symbiotic to my living.”
Early Years
Sydney Albertini was born in Paris in 1973 to a French father and an American mother. Although she considered becoming a psychiatrist or a dancer, she attended the Atelier de Sèvres in Paris and then went to Florence to study fresco painting at the International Studio Art Centre. “In Italy, I learned how to do frescoes, so it was all about colours and narrative,” she has said. “The narrative focus from the Italian Renaissance completely influenced me. My work is based in that same aspect: piecing things together to tell a story.” She spent time in Senegal during her late teens, where she discovered tribal art and dancing, becoming interested in patterns with a specific language. In 2002, she moved to New York City to study at Parsons School of Art and Design.
Sydney Albertini: Artworks
Albertini’s practice spans large painted drawings on Kraft paper, quilts, embroidery, knitting, fabric, ceramics and oils on canvas. But what unites her artworks is a focus on movement and colour, blending abstraction and figuration while foregrounding pattern and texture. Working in two and three dimensions, she plays with concepts traditionally pigeonholed as “women’s crafts”, including fibre, knitting and embroidery.
- The pieces in Albertini’s Movement series, rendered in charcoal and oil on Kraft paper, energetically combine abstraction and figuration, foregrounding decorative elements and allowing bold patterns and vivid colours to interact.
- The Botanicals series, also on Kraft paper and occasionally multi-panelled, is an abstract interpretation of plant shapes and motifs, inspired by Albertini’s travels. There is no sky or ground in these compositions—instead, the focus is the relationship between the movement and colour of each element.
- Albertini’s Gift series takes Albertini away from her paper and into the medium of oil on canvas. Everyday objects (vases of flowers, for example) are placed into an artistic context, becoming abstract compositions exuding Albertini’s familiar, powerful use of form and colour.
Sydney Albertini: Select Exhibitions
Select Solo Exhibitions
- Works on Paper, Tristan Hoare Gallery, London (2026)
- Too Close to Me, Tristan Hoare Gallery, London (2024)
- Institut Maison Sisley Paris Rive Droite (2023)
- Impressions, Tristan Hoare Gallery, London (2022)
- Sky Diary, Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton (2018)
- Fibre Works Exhibition, Julien David Jingumae Shop, Tokyo (2018)
- A Visual Textile Diary Part One, Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton (2017)
- This Woman’s Work, Duck Creek Arts Centre, East Hampton (2017)
- Heads, Richard S Jackson Carriage House, Amagansett (2016)
- Above and Beyond, Point Gallery, Amagansett (2015)
- ...and also I have no idea, Parrish Road Show, Amagansett (2013)
- Stuffed and other feelings, Ille Arts gallery, Amagansett (2012)
- ...and now for something completely different, Ille Arts Gallery, Amagansett (2011)
- Éphémère, French Institute, New York City (2011)
Select Group Exhibitions
- Summer Wall, The Fridge NYC, New York City (2024)
- Paper, Tristan Hoare Gallery, London (2023)
- An Expanded Portrait: Works from the Permanent Collection, Parrish Art Museum, New York City (2023)
- Joji Nakamura and Sydney Albertini, The Fridge, New York City (2022)
- Folds, Tristan Hoare Gallery, London (2021)
- Frankenstein, Sag Harbor (2018)
- Five and Forward, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton (2018)
- Albertini + Spillman, Flynn Gallery, Greenwich (2014)
- In Between and Around, Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton (2011)
- Small Works, Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton (2010)
Further Reading
- Sydney Albertini’s official website
- Sydney Albertini’s Instagram
- Artist profile page at Tristan Hoare Gallery
- 2021 interview in O Boy
Sydney Albertini FAQs
What materials and techniques does Sydney Albertini use?
For her Movement and Botanicals series, Albertini started work by drawing instinctually with charcoal on to brown Kraft paper while determining her chosen colour palette and creating her patterns with oil paint. She then cut panels of her patterned material and placed them on to her background—the brown creates a different base to traditional white.
She has a “wet” and a “dry” studio in her home—the wet space is for painting and the dry space is where she creates her weaving, knitting, embroidery and soft sculptures.
How did Sydney Albertini collaborate with Sisley?
Sydney Albertini is a long-time friend of Christine d’Ornano, managing director of the Paris-based beauty brand, Sisley. In 2020, she created a limited-edition bottle of Sisley’s Eau de Soir perfume. A second collaboration in 2022 saw Albertini create an abstract portrait for the bottle, which coincided with an exhibition of Albertini’s work at Sisley’s Trois Cinq Friedland space.
Who were Sydney Albertini’s parents?
Sydney Albertini’s mother, Jamee Becker, was a model during the 1960s while her grandmother, Sheila Jackson, used to be part of The US Steel Hour on American television during the 1960s. Her father is a French psychiatrist. Speaking in 2011, Albertini said: “I grew up in Paris in the 1980s. There was a thin line between girl and boy, very androgynous style. Meanwhile, my grandmother represented American perfection with her cocktails and red lips. She was perfect glamour, the opposite of Paris.”
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