Sylvie Barcelo (1959–1994) was a dynamic Canadian painter and visual artist who began leaving a mark on the North American art scene during her brief career until her premature death from breast cancer in 1994. Born in Montreal, Quebec, she moved to the U.S. in early adulthood to pursue a music career and eventually focused on painting. By her life's end, her signature, highly detailed acrylic paintings and hand-painted vases drew inspiration from both her global travels and rich imagination. Barcelo gained recognition from a pivotal 1993 solo exhibition at the Canadian Embassy Art Gallery in Washington, DC—an event featuring her imaginative, dramatic work. Other shows followed in Washington, at the Watergate Hotel and local galleries, as well as in New York. The Canadian Embassy show proved a resounding success, selling nearly all works and attracting curators and museum directors.An encounter with a creative genius | CBC
Barcelo’s art was also showcased at International Visions—The Gallery, a leading DC contemporary venue known for representing diverse artists, affirming her rising prominence. She participated in curated “small works by women” exhibitions in both New York City and Washington, DC, which highlighted her commitment to women’s artistic networks and collaborative practice. Barcelo’s career, while tragically cut short by illness in 1994, remained defined by creative courage and her lasting influence within the circles she touched.
Born January 3, 1959, Sylvie Barcelo, a talented Canadian artist, began her creative journey by playing music, drawing cartoons, and painting simple watercolor paintings on notebook paper from a young age. Although she is primarily known as a musician turned painter, Sylvie never formally studied painting; she did, however, take a life model drawing class with Maria Chase in 1982. Her artistic work began with a blend of figurative and implausible imagination. Over time, this Quebecoise artist developed a fascination with high- and low-level aerial views, which ultimately led to a more complex abstraction. Sylvie Barcelo is among the unknown female artists worth knowing for her unique contribution to the art world.
Wherever Sylvie Barcelo, the talented Quebecoise artist, was found throughout her life, music was always playing. The influence of music on Sylvie’s paintings cannot be overstated. As a musician turned painter, Sylvie's artistic journey was deeply intertwined with the sounds she loved. In the 1980s, when she began to paint seriously, her eclectic mix of classical music and jazz shaped her creative expression, a passion she inherited from her father, a true music aficionado. Sylvie’s musical range spanned from Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, and Albinoni to the jazz sounds of Miles Davis, Weather Report, Don Cherry, and Pat Metheny. She also admired experimentalists like Carla Bley, Steve Reich, Brian Eno, and Terje Rydal. Among her favorites were popular artists like The Police, Annie Lennox, and Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. However, it was little-known Terje Rydal and his intergalactic music that particularly inspired her while painting her objects floating in space series. Sylvie Barcelo is undoubtedly one of the unknown female artists worth knowing.
In addition to classical, jazz, and rock music, Canadian artist Sylvie Barcelo, a musician turned painter, was highly influenced by the sitar music of Indian musicians like Ravi Shankar. Her eventual travels in India and Nepal during the year she spent traveling from her base in Somalia were influential in some of her early notable watercolor and aerial and urban view paintings in 1983-84. By 1986, when this Quebecoise artist was living near Timbuktu in Mali, the soulful West African music of Mali’s Salif Keita and Senegal’s Youssou Ndour greatly influenced her later aerial view acrylic on paper series, along with her Topographic Hman series. Sylvie Barcelo is one of the unknown female artists worth knowing for her unique blend of cultural influences.
As a child of the 1960s and 1970s, the energy and turbulence of those years impacted Sylvie Barcelo, a talented Quebecoise artist, just as it did her generation. While not highly politicized, Sylvie was adamant that women needed to be treated equally to men, a common theme particularly in Quebec and Canada during that era. The women’s movement energized Sylvie's work ethic as a musician turned painter, demonstrating that women could produce great art with equal sophistication, similar to many unknown female artists worth knowing.
Sylvie Barcelo, a talented Canadian artist and musician turned painter, was deeply inspired by art ranging from the Renaissance masterpieces of Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci to the modern works of Picasso, Paul Klee, Dali, and even contemporary figures like Cy Twombly and Jackson Pollock. As a Quebecoise artist, Sylvie responded more to creators whose structured narratives were easier to interpret and invest in. She harnessed her imagination to encourage viewers to develop their own stories about the scenes presented in her paintings, much like the unknown female artists worth knowing who have shaped the art world.
Some people are born artists, transforming what most of us either do not see or fail to use our senses to travel far internally and imagine. Sylvie Barcelo, a remarkable Canadian artist and Quebecoise artist, was one such person. It was not until she approached her death in 1994 that she began to accept that she was becoming an artist, perhaps even a serious one at that. Many years after her death, she was dubbed 'a creative genius' by the Embassy of Canada's Cultural Counselor responsible for organizing Sylvie’s biggest one-woman show during her lifetime. Her story sheds light on the journey of unknown female artists worth knowing. See: An encounter with a creative genius | CBC Radio
Sylvie Barcelo, a talented Canadian artist and musician turned painter, spent much of 1983-84 in Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania. The influence of high-level aerials on her subsequent work is noteworthy, showcasing the depth of this Quebecoise artist's creative journey and highlighting why she is among the unknown female artists worth knowing.
In 1986, while living outside Timbuktu, Mali, the Canadian artist Sylvie Barcelo was at a pivotal transition point, evolving from painting high-level aerial views inspired by East Africa to exploring her fascination with lower-level aerial perspectives. This artwork showcases a blend of fields and rangelands in central Mali along the Niger River, highlighting the talents of this Quebecoise artist, who is among the unknown female artists worth knowing.
Due to the heat of northern Mali, people in much of the year sleep on the roofs. From these rooftops, one can observe the domestic activity in neighboring compounds and throughout neighborhoods, much like how the work of the Quebecoise artist Sylvie Barcelo captures everyday life. The fascination with low-level aerials extends from Mali to other parts of the world, reflecting the creativity of various unknown female artists worth knowing, including musician turned painter Sylvie Barcelo.
After Sylvie Barcelo, a talented Canadian artist and musician turned painter, exhausted her Topographic Human and Vaysage Series, she began creating ever more complex art that she labeled Topographic Expressionism. This series builds on landscapes, facescapes, and miscellaneous objects, combined in new ways. "Double Vision" is an excellent example of merging multiple perspectives and paintings into one, showcasing the work of this Quebecoise artist and highlighting the contributions of unknown female artists worth knowing.
"Facetime Happy Vase" was one of the largest painted vases Sylvie produced. Her painted vases take work she had been doing on paper and canvas, transferring it into spherical, 3-dimensional spaces.
This vase is 43 1/2" in circumference and 19 1/2" in height.
Sylvie Barcelo fell in love with the Dogon Plateau in Mali. Together with her living in Dire further in the north near Timbuktu, the Dogon Plateau fueled her imagination of dramatic landscapes, objects, and people in space.
"Paysage" in French translates to "landscape," while "visage" means face. Canadian artist Sylvie Barcelo, a musician turned painter, creatively merges elements of landscapes into faces in her Vaysage series. This innovative series laid the groundwork for her subsequent works, which explore themes of topographic humans and topographic expressionism, showcasing the talent of Quebecoise artists and highlighting unknown female artists worth knowing.
Red Eyed Vaysage
One landscape, two faces, reflects the duality often explored by many Canadian artists, including the talented Quebecoise artist Sylvie Barcelo. As a musician turned painter, she embodies a unique blend of creative expression. In the realm of art, there are also numerous unknown female artists worth knowing, whose perspectives contribute richly to this vibrant landscape.
