Sydney Yeager
Sydney Yeager is an artist who lives in Austin and maintains a working studio in Elgin, Texas. Yeager has exhibited widely in the state of Texas and her work has been collected by several museums, which include the Museum of Fine Art, Houston (Prints and Drawings collection), the El Paso Museum of Art, the Tyler Museum of Art, and the Art Museum of South Texas. Sydney’s work is represented in the 2014 book, Texas Abstract: Modern/Contemporary, edited by Michael Paglia and Jim Edwards. In 2019, Sydney was invited to have a solo exhibition at Texas A&M’s Wright Gallery, School of Art and Architecture. Another solo exhibition of her work titled Little Mysteries, curated by Clint Wilour of the Galveston Art Center, toured the state in 2003-2004. This exhibition traveled to several museums including the Jones Center, Austin (now the Contemporary Austin). In 1996, she was awarded a Mid-America Arts Alliance Grant, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, in the field of Painting and Works on Paper. Sydney Yeager is affiliated with the Laura Rathe Fine Art and Ivester Contemporary galleries in Austin.
Courses Taught
ARTS 1317 Drawing II
ARTS 2316 Painting I
ARTS 2317 Painting II
Sydney Yeager video courtesy of Laura Rathe Fine Art
Faculty Spotlight
What do you most hope students will take away from your class?
I hope my students find their own voice in the class environment that I provide. I also hope that they each discover a “tribe” of historic precedents, artists who worked in styles that they connect with. I want to help them move forward with their own work and develop a new twist on the familiar.
What is your favorite technique or topic to teach? Is there one lecture or selection that is the most fun for you to teach?
One of my favorite topics to teach is Color. I love seeing students develop a new understanding of how color can work magic.
Is there another medium or area of research that you have always wanted to explore?
I would love to explore sculptural ceramics. The tactility and fluidity of clay is compelling.
What types of books do you read? What are you reading now and/or what is one of the most treasured books on your bookshelf?
I love the author Italo Calvino. His book, Mr. Palomar (1983) has been a big influence on my work.
Name a place that you’ve traveled to, but feel like you need to go back to because you didn’t have enough time there.
I’ve never been any place that I didn’t want to return to and investigate more.
