Ena Swansea
Ena Swansea continually introduces effects normally associated with digital art and film and contrasts these elements with traditional painting techniques. She primes her canvas with a special graphite-mixture, which the artist, in collaboration with paint manufacturers, has developed over years. The reflective surface acts like a movie screen—the interplay between dull and glossy pigment application evokes a new image with every change of light. As in happy valley, where revelers appear to float in front of the picture plane, alternately emerging and sinking into shadow as in a subterranean nightclub. Combining realism and flowing fields of paint, a fresh approach emerges using a familiar set of materials.
Swansea’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and internationally—she was included in Greater New York at MoMA PS1 in 2005, and The Triumph of Painting at the Saatchi Gallery London in 2006. In 2008, she had her first museum survey at the Musee d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg. In 2011, The Deichtorhallen Hamburg/ Collection Falckenberg organized a two-person exhibition, Psycho, featuring forty of Swansea's paintings from European collections. In 2001, Swansea received the Hassam, Speicher, Betts and Symons Purchase Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Courtesy of …
Ena Swansea continually introduces effects normally associated with digital art and film and contrasts these elements with traditional painting techniques. She primes her canvas with a special graphite-mixture, which the artist, in collaboration with paint manufacturers, has developed over years. The reflective surface acts like a movie screen—the interplay between dull and glossy pigment application evokes a new image with every change of light. As in happy valley, where revelers appear to float in front of the picture plane, alternately emerging and sinking into shadow as in a subterranean nightclub. Combining realism and flowing fields of paint, a fresh approach emerges using a familiar set of materials.
Swansea’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and internationally—she was included in Greater New York at MoMA PS1 in 2005, and The Triumph of Painting at the Saatchi Gallery London in 2006. In 2008, she had her first museum survey at the Musee d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg. In 2011, The Deichtorhallen Hamburg/ Collection Falckenberg organized a two-person exhibition, Psycho, featuring forty of Swansea's paintings from European collections. In 2001, Swansea received the Hassam, Speicher, Betts and Symons Purchase Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Courtesy of Albertz Benda
