Sylvan Lionni XXV Poems

Sylvan Lionni - XXV Poems (Wry N.20) 2026

“XXV Poems” collects of series of works by painter Sylvan Lionni begun in 2022, in which he utilizes the form of the quatrain to make a suite of constraint-based minimalist text-pieces. Created entirely from readymade brand name & media logotypes set in various rhyme-scheme permutations, these poems hilariously (& somewhat sickeningly) peer into the detritus of late-stage capitalism. You can think of these “poems” as as a form of negative dialectics perhaps, or even circles that have been hammered into squares; images & words that seem as far removed from “poetry” as you could imagine, yet somehow, against all odds, functioning exactly as such. Like with all true poetry, hopefully every single time you read it you’ll not be sure if you should laugh, or if you should cry.

“A vibrant suite of quatrain daisy chain poems – popular brand name logos depicted verbatim – are all expertly hand-painted in Sylvan’s token hard-edge style. These works consider the math of poetry while mocking the lures that target our desire for corporate consumption.
 
Taken as a whole, the artist's allegiance to the tenants of American minimalism and post-pop tendencies is unavoidably felt. But one comes away with a new brand of armchair scholarship, as antagonistic toward staid artistic strategies as indebted to them. Sylvan’s on-going expansion of a visual language that’s usage as metaphor is at once universal and indefatigable. It's a confusing proposition being asked not to touch objects in our everyday lives, but Lionni does it with a flippant panache that focuses a lens on the subtle poetry needed to reexamine our beautiful backgrounds.” -Steven Stewart

Four of these poems were featured in Lionni’s 2022 solo exhibition Sports & Leisure at Futures Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. Five appeared in the three-person exhibition It We Us Her at Olseröds Konsthall in Sweden in the fall of 2025. This volume of "XXV Poems" collects the entire series to date.

Sylvan Lionni received his MFA from Bard College, NY and BFA from the School of Visual Arts, NY. His solo exhibitions include Taubert Contemporary, Berlin; KANSAS, NY; Fort Gansevort, NY; Stene Projects, Stockholm; Freight + Volume, NY; and Fusebox, Washington, DC. His work has been exhibited in museums in the United States and Europe, including The Brooklyn Museum of Art, MoMA P.S. 1, and mumok. His work is held in many private and public collections, including the Daimler Collection, Berlin, Germany; General Dynamics, Falls Church, Virginia; and the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Baltimore, Maryland. His work has appeared, or been reviewed in ArtForum, Svenska Dagbladet, Art in America, Flash Art, and Architectural Digest among others.

Printed in full color / 8x10” / French Flaps / Tangerine endpapers / Images presented recto only / Printed in an edition of 200 copies