Tony Swain Northern Ireland, b. 1967
Overview
By combining painting with newsprint, he has consistently produced works that challenge the schematized conventional notion of painting and address in-depth questions about the interaction between the originality of adopted images and their subliminal meanings. It is the first solo exhibition by Swain in Seoul, one of the artists who represented Scotland in Venice at the Venice Biennale in 2007.
Swain’s ritual—constantly examining the pile of newspaper collected in the studio, cropping them in diverse methods honed over time, clipping them and placing them on a panel—can be differentiated from the other universal methodologies such as collage or Combine painting. Old scraps cropped out of the Guardian, which he reads and keeps every day, are not only a physical foundation, the lowest layer of a work, but incidents and advertisements attached without a source – overlapped and overpainted. Swain does not suggest any additional clues about the sense of distance which appears in the mystic sceneries and images of his works. This enigmatic sensibility is one of the most intriguing features in Swain’s practice because, as the title of the exhibition implies, it unveils the niches between memories and flashbacks, and between sublimity and irony.
Tony Swain (b. 1967, Lisburn) lives and works in Glasgow. He received a BFA from the Glasgow School of Art, UK. Selected as one of the artists representing the Scotland Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007, he has established a solid presence on the international art scene with a following exhibition at Tate Britain in 2009. He has been the subject of numerous exhibitions including Kunstverein Freiburg, DE (2015); Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, UK (2015); and Inverleith House, UK (2008). His work is represented in the collections of Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK; Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow, UK; Tate, UK; The Arts Council Collection, UK; FRAC des Pays de la Loire, FR; MoMA, US; SFMOMA, US.
Swain’s ritual—constantly examining the pile of newspaper collected in the studio, cropping them in diverse methods honed over time, clipping them and placing them on a panel—can be differentiated from the other universal methodologies such as collage or Combine painting. Old scraps cropped out of the Guardian, which he reads and keeps every day, are not only a physical foundation, the lowest layer of a work, but incidents and advertisements attached without a source – overlapped and overpainted. Swain does not suggest any additional clues about the sense of distance which appears in the mystic sceneries and images of his works. This enigmatic sensibility is one of the most intriguing features in Swain’s practice because, as the title of the exhibition implies, it unveils the niches between memories and flashbacks, and between sublimity and irony.
Tony Swain (b. 1967, Lisburn) lives and works in Glasgow. He received a BFA from the Glasgow School of Art, UK. Selected as one of the artists representing the Scotland Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007, he has established a solid presence on the international art scene with a following exhibition at Tate Britain in 2009. He has been the subject of numerous exhibitions including Kunstverein Freiburg, DE (2015); Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, UK (2015); and Inverleith House, UK (2008). His work is represented in the collections of Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK; Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow, UK; Tate, UK; The Arts Council Collection, UK; FRAC des Pays de la Loire, FR; MoMA, US; SFMOMA, US.
Works
Exhibitions
Enquiry