Sojourner Truth Parsons
Sojourner Truth Parsons, You want to know how I spend my time, 2022 acrylic on canvas on linen, 60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm) STP_FP4687
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Clinging to earth, 2022, acrylic on canvas on linen, 60 x 65 in. (152.4 x165.1 cm) STP_FP4688
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Blue by you ll, 2022, acrylic on linen, 66 x 66 in. (167.6 x 167.6 cm)
Sojourner Truth Parsons, My name is not Susan, 2022, installation view, Foxy Production, New York
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Big girls don’t cry, 2022, acrylic on canvas on linen, 60 x 65 in. (152.4 x 165.1 cm)
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Tomorrow is my turn, 2022, acrylic on canvas on linen, 60 x 65 in. (152.4 x 165.1 cm)
Sojourner Truth Parsons, February fourteenth and a half, 2022, acrylic on canvas on linen, 60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm)
The New Bend, 2022, installation view, Hauser & Wirth, New York
l’Invitation au voyage, 2021, installation view, Esther Schipper, Berlin. Photo: Andrea Rossetti Archive
Springweather and people, 2021, installation view, Bortolami, New York
Sojourner Truth Parsons, February, 2021, acrylic on canvas on linen, 84 x 64 in. (213.4 x 162.6 cm) STP_FP4541
Sojourner Truth Parsons, My name is not Susan, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 94 1/2 x 63 1/2 in. (240 x 161.2 cm) STP_FP4540
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Sex and love with a psychologist, 2020, installation view, Foxy Production, New York
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Ocean with piano, 2019-2020, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 84 in. (213.36 x 213.36 cm), STP_FP4386
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Tell them that it’s human nature, 2020, acrylic on linen, 65 3/4 x 49 3/4 in. (167 x 126.36 cm), STP_FP4384
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Camouflage literature for survival, 2020, acrylic on linen, 64 3/4 x 59 3/4 in. (164.47 x 151.77 cm), STP_FP4390
Sojourner Truth Parsons, My Perfect Look, 2019, acrylic on linen, 89 x 60 in. (226.06 x 152.4 cm), STP_FP4308
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Right down the line, 2019, canvas, archival adhesive, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 72 in. (182.9 x 182.9 cm), STP_FP4412
Sojourner Truth Parsons, My first boyfriend after my mother, 2018, canvas, archival adhesive, acrylic on canvas, diptych, 96 x 60 in. ( 243.84 x 152.4 cm) each panel, STP_FP4413
Sojourner Truth Parsons: Holding Your Dog at Night, 2017, installation view Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square, Oakville, ON. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.
Sojourner Truth Parsons: Holding Your Dog at Night, 2017, installation view Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square, Oakville, ON. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.
Sojourner Truth Parsons: Holding Your Dog at Night, 2017, installation view Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square, Oakville, ON. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.
Sojourner Truth Parsons: Holding Your Dog at Night, 2017, installation view Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square, Oakville, ON. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Slow runner with the fireflies, 2017, canvas, archival adhesive, acrylic on canvas, 102 × 84 in. (259.1 × 213.4 cm), STP_FP4416
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Sitting in the sun counting my money sitting in the sun across from you, 2017, canvas, archival adhesive, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 84 in. (213.4 x 213.4 cm), STP_FP4438
Sojourner Truth Parsons, The cool breeze off her back if my face cream, 2016, canvas, archival adhesive, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 84 in. (243.84 x 213.36 cm), STP_FP4426
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Heartbeats accelerating, 2016, canvas, archival adhesive, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 60 in. (213.36 x 152.4 cm), STP_FP4435
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Untitled, 2016, canvas, archival adhesive, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 in. (152.4 x 121.92 cm), STP_FP4425
Sojourner Truth Parsons, The same rope that pulls you up will hang you his and hers edition II, 2016, collaged canvas, acrylic, sand, and glitter, 70 7⁄8 x 51 1⁄8 in. (180 x 130 cm), STP_FP4340
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Black and white bitch painting a butterfly, 2016, canvas, archival adhesive, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 40 in. (152.4 x 101.6 cm), STP_FP4423
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Rose, 2016, acrylic, glitter, glue, flashe, string, raw pigment, canvas, lavender essence on canvas, 84 x 60 in. (213.4 x 152.4 cm), STP_FP4420
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Self Portrait on a gift card, 2015, canvas, glue, acrylic on canvas, 75 x 40 in. (190.5 x 101.6 cm), STP_FP4430
Sojourner Truth Parsons, For women’s eyes only, 2015, sand, glue, acrylic, rope and collage on canvas, 60 x 48 x 6 in. (152.4 x 121.92 x 15.24 cm), STP_FP4339
Sojourner Truth Parsons, When your dog makes other plans, 2016, acrylic, glitter, glue, flashe, string, raw pigment, canvas, and lavender essence on canvas, 96 x 72 in. (243.84 x 182.88 cm), STP_FP4290
Sojourner Truth Parsons, I hate sex, 2016, canvas, archival adhesive, acrylic on canvas, 108 x 96 in. (274.32 x 243.84 cm), STP_FP4422
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Crying in California, 2016, acrylic, glitter, glue, flashe, raw pigment, and lavender essence on canvas, 72 x 60 in. (182.88 x 152.40 cm), STP_FP4291
Sojourner Truth Parsons, Every shit you take, 2016, acrylic, glitter, glue, flashe, string, raw pigment, canvas, and lavender essence on canvas, 84 x 84 in. (213.36 x 213.36 cm), STP_FP4289
Sojourner Truth Parsons, tuesday morning, 2015, acrylic and collage on canvas, 24 x 18 in. (60.96 x 45.72 cm), STP_FP4428
Sojourner Truth Parsons, tuesday morning (detail), 2015, acrylic and collage on canvas, 24 x 18 in. (60.96 x 45.72 cm), STP_FP4428

Taking root in the textures of everyday life, Sojourner Truth Parsons’ paintings are personal yet fictional moments, driven by a desire to translate the psychological and the affective into visual form. Bodies, flora and fauna, the city—the touchstones of daily existence—are anchoring forms in her practice; they are images that stand in for the emotional acuities and atmospheric intensities that occupy her time in the studio. Parsons’ paintings aim to manifest a perception concerned with the saturated and sacred, one that is filtered through illusion and shaped by multiplicity and doubt.

There is an enigmatic energy that anchors the artist’s gaze, one that is generative, privileging truth over fact and feeling over form. Parsons has written; “ My work often renders scenes that feel borrowed but are, in fact, inherited, in shadowy, sharp-edged forms that—much like my own experience—elude clear apprehension.”

There is a rigorous and emergent logic to Parsons’ paintings, one developed through the abstraction of collaged forms, scrupulous use of color, and focused attention to textures, edges, and a certain intuitive flatness. These elements recur throughout her work, reflecting a textural experience of the world that feels at once potent and fragmentary, lucid and unfixed.

Parsons’ work is neither autobiographical nor narrative in form, but strives instead for a sense of intimacy, where the boundaries between interior and exterior worlds are collapsed and a felt experience can be recognized. She works to strike a balance between openness and obscurity, where what is not revealed is as potent as what is, in a mix of illusion, desire, and pain: “It is my hope that, through the process of rendering these scenes, critical truths can be glimpsed and a provocative sense of wholeness can emerge.”

Sojourner Truth Parsons (Vancouver, BC, Canada, 1984) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, NS, Canada.

Solo exhibitions include: “Milk river,” Various Small Fires, Seoul, South Korea; “Sex and love with a psychologist,” Foxy Production, New York, NY (both 2020); “Holding Your Dog At Night,” Oakville Galleries, Oakville, ON, Canada; “Dolphin, take me with you,” Downs & Ross, New York, NY (both 2017); “Crying in California,” Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and “Heartbeats Accelerating,” Tomorrow, New York, NY (both 2016). Recent group exhibitions include: “The New Bend,” curated by Legacy Russell, Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY (2022); “l’Invitation au voyage,” Esther Schipper, Berlin, Germany (2021); “This is America,” Kunstraum Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany; “Springweather and people,” Bortolami, New York, NY (both 2021); ”This Sacred Vessel (PT. 1),” Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY; and “Staying alive,” Lyles and King, New York, NY (both 2020).

CV
EXHIBITIONS
At Land 2022 Gallery
Sojourner Truth Parsons 2022 Gallery
Figura 2020 Gallery
Sojourner Truth Parsons 2020 Gallery
I Am Silver 2016 Gallery