PICTORIAL FOUNDATION | SYLVIA MUELLER

SYLVIA MUELLER

Kingston NY UNITED STATES

I studied photography at the School of Visual Arts and worked for several years in advertising and magazine production in New York City. After moving to the Hudson Valley, I found the time and space to return to a creative practice. I work primarily in collage, using magazines, art books, and found printed material to create layered visual compositions.

My work has been exhibited in juried shows across New York, including Sketchbook Gallery, Create Council, Limner Gallery, Upstream Gallery, Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, Muroff Kotler Gallery at SUNY Ulster, and Cut Me Up magazine. I am a founding member of CIRCLE24collective, a community of women artists, and a member of WAAM, the National Collage Society, and the Special Agent Collage Collective. I currently serve as a board member at WAAM.

My creative practice is centered in collage, material reuse, and the transformation of found printed matter. After working in photography, advertising, and magazine production, I became drawn to a more hands-on process, cutting and reassembling images from magazines, art books, and other printed sources.

I am interested in bringing together incongruous visuals and exploring how seemingly unrelated elements can exist within the same realm, even when they do not belong to the same space. Nature often enters my work through imagery, texture, colour, and the forms I cut. Through collage, I create compositions where fragments meet, overlap, and shift meaning. My process allows me to build new visual relationships from existing materials, creating works that feel layered, unexpected, and open to interpretation.

ARTWORKS

Apparition (2023)

SYLVIA MUELLER

collage
20H x 16W in (50 x 40.5 cm)
US $400 (framed)

“From the ongoing series, “Unearthed”. The idea started with a book of paintings of saints, where figures are often depicted as otherworldly — aloof in expression and marked by halos symbolizing a spiritual aura. While flipping through fashion magazines, which I regularly use in my practice, I began to notice a similar detachment in the expressions of the models. I know a model is often secondary to the fashion they are wearing, but I thought what if I pulled them out of their settings and adorned them with halos of my own making but also full body auras, I reframe them as something more fantastical.

I like to think of my “Unearthed” ladies as supernatural manifestations which would appear to offer guidance and comfort.”

Big Buckle (2026)

SYLVIA MUELLER

collage
20H x 16W in (50 x 40.5 cm)
US $400 (framed)

“From the ongoing series, “Unearthed”. The idea started with a book of paintings of saints, where figures are often depicted as otherworldly — aloof in expression and marked by halos symbolizing a spiritual aura. While flipping through fashion magazines, which I regularly use in my practice, I began to notice a similar detachment in the expressions of the models. I know a model is often secondary to the fashion they are wearing, but I thought what if I pulled them out of their settings and adorned them with halos of my own making but also full body auras, I reframe them as something more fantastical.

I like to think of my “Unearthed” ladies as supernatural manifestations which would appear to offer guidance and comfort.”

EXHIBITIONS

Code Girl

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SYLVIA MUELLER

Kingston NY UNITED STATES

ARTWORKS

EXHIBITIONS