Artist Profile: Sylvia Augustus

Sylvia Augustus

5114 N Monroe Ave
Kansas City, MO 64119

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Bio:

I am a landscape and equine photographer. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis; a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation from Cornell University and a Master of Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. I successfully completed Artist Inc., Kansas City (2016); Artist Inc. Advanced, Kansas City (2017); I am a current participant of ARTSKC Now Showing and I am a 2017 ArtsKC Inspiration Grant recipient for my ongoing project Wild Equine Running Free. My work has been exhibited at Kansas City area galleries. My work has been selected for juried shows including Arti Gras in Leawood, Kansas; Heartland Artist Exhibition in Merriam, Kansas and the Art Show at the Dog Show in Topeka, Kansas. At each of these juried shows I have received honorable mentions for my work. My work is also part of the permanent collection at Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri. I spent almost five years living and working in Yosemite National Park as a preservation architect. While at Yosemite, my free time was spent taking photographs of the Sierra Nevada area. Prior to Yosemite, my photographic focus was on the built environment. During my tenure at Yosemite my photographic practice shifted from the built environment to landscapes and wild life. In 2012 I visited the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary for the first time. I met a Spanish Mustang named Don Juan. I connected instantly with him and to the other rescued horses. Their collective will to survive and the individual journeys they have taken to get to places of "safety" like the Sanctuary have become the main driver for my artwork. Wild American Equine are in peril; their habitat; bloodlines; and societal structures are threatened by overpopulation and public land management policies. My main body of photographic work focuses upon documenting wild American Equine and their struggle for survival. My work is a service to the community at large; sharing a story about how society has failed one of the last great American icons; the wild horse.