Oct 8

Oct 8 Sylvia Raz

Her Eye on the World

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE 10, 2026

There are exhibits that really stick with you. For me, seeing the Gates of Ishtar at the Pergamon in Berlin, the 1972 Francis Bacon retrospective in Paris, and anything and everything in the First Nations exhibits at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver all just blew my head off (figuratively, of course).

But there was also an exhibit at the Santa Paula Museum a few years back that stuck with me. Coming into the entry hall, dozens of well-dressed Barbie dolls were lined up against the wall, snaking around the corner into the main hall, then into a side room where the line finally ended at a Barbie-sized door with “Ladies” written above it. Nearby, a short line of Ken dolls waited at a door marked “Gents.” Quintessential Sylvia Raz.

I am imagining Sylvia’s children rolling their eyes (Sylvia says they think she’s a narcissist). I think artists probably need a little narcissism — especially an artist with a large body of provocative, sardonic work which addresses issues like class conflicts, racism, the state of democracy and the environment, and above all, the status of women in the world. Does Sylvia think she has the answers to these weighty issues? I doubt it. But she certainly wants us to keep thinking about them once we’ve left her studio.

Sylvia’s studio is eye-candy overload; there is so much to see. She works in bold colors, creating both mixed media paintings and large assemblage sculptures, mingling found objects with carved stone, ceramics, and wood. There are sculptures made with female mannequins or blocky wood figures, each with its own story and meaning. There are paintings made entirely of buttons, a hand-knitted full-scale self-portrait, a teddy bear on a cross, and an arresting red painting of a Chinese woman giving birth. What is really satisfying is to slow down, read the titles, and take in what droll commentary and stories Sylvia has to tell about each and every piece.

Sylvia grew up in Uruguay, then lived and worked in Israel with her husband, Shlomo, before moving to California in 1974, when she committed to full-time art-making. She painted and sculpted in stone and clay, but after moving to Ojai in the ‘90s, she discovered she most enjoys creating work from found objects — “giving new life to things that were on their way to the trash dumps of the world.” She has a whole large room packed with found odds and ends she has collected to use in future sculptures.

After a half-century of art-making, I asked Sylvia what her favorite pieces were. I was delighted to hear that the Barbie doll installation was one. Its title: Waiting in Line. “But they’re not just waiting for the bathroom,” she chuckles. The Chinese woman giving birth is also a favorite. Its title: Sonburst, addressing the era when China allowed only two children per family and preferred baby boys. A second title, she tells me, is China is Coming.

But for Sylvia, what she is working on right now — that is her favorite piece. Often, that piece is triggered by some event she observed or something she read in the New York Times — a social issue that concerns her and becomes the keystone of the work. The story behind each piece is also very important to her, she explains. And each piece has its own story. Knowing her subject matter can often be difficult; she consciously uses her humor to lure people in — make them laugh, then have them ponder provocative or challenging subject matter once they consider the meaning of the title.