In a wide-ranging practice that encompasses photography, sculpture and painting, Diana Sinclair (b.2004) probes the material, spiritual and social resonance of water. As a former competitive swimmer, Sinclair experienced the way that pools can become fraught with racial tension; Researching global communities of black surfers, she was inspired to travel to Costa Rica, Santa Cruz and Senegal to take part in the sport that originated in Ghana; and advised by academics Kevin Dawson and Kathie Foley-Meyer, she grasped the way water can preserve legacies, hold the DNA of souls left scattered in the middle passage. Each of these stories inhabit a body of work that is materially engaged with the element: Friends and acquaintances are captured in intimate settings on polaroids that erode in water. The resulting cyanotypes record silhouetted figures whose traumas, histories, and joys are rinsed in saltwater.

Sinclair is a self-taught artist who currently has a studio at the Silver Art Projects Residency in New York, NY. Her work has recently been included in exhibitions at All Street Gallery, New York, NY (2024) and Residency Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2024). Her work was chosen for a year-long public installation at the Rockefeller Center from 2023-2024. She was the recipient of the Gemma Projects Inaugural Curatorial Grant (2023) and the YoungArts Award Finalist in Photography (2021). Sinclair currently lives and works in Jersey City, NJ.

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