- Modern Institute
- Find out more about Tony Swain and see more examples of his work
Tony Swain
A sheet or cut section of newsprint provides the basis from which Tony Swain creates paintings depicting complex and surreal private worlds. Randomly selected newspaper pages are painted over with considered delicacy, distorting perspectives and entwining abstract motifs with the landscapes and figures of the original print.
Artist Merlin James comments on Swains work: '[His] semi-abstract designs, with chevrons and loose grids, and rudimentary evocations of perspective and spacial illusion, invite direct material and aesthetic response. He engages the viewer's physical and emotional empathy as much as or simultaneously with - intellectual speculation.'
Swain is one third of the critically acclaimed band, Hassle Hound, who recently released their second LP on Staubgold Records subsequent to a tour of Germany, Winter 2006.
Swain's solo exhibitions include Not New, Went On, Millais Gallery, Southampton - until 27 January 2007; Sommer Gallery, Tel Aviv, 2006 and Hansard Gallery, Southampton, November 2006; Never Even, Herald St, London, 2005; New Paintings, Kerlin Gallery, Ireland, 2005, and Water Through Window, Husband Mental, The Modern Institute, Glasgow, 2004. Group exhibitions include Anna-Catherina Gebbers, Berlin, 2006; Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, 2004; Kerlin Gallery, Ireland, 2004; Supernova, British Council group touring show, 2005. Swain's work is in many private and public collections including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York and National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Born in Lisburn, Co. Antrim in 1967, Swain graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 1990. He continues to live and work in Glasgow.
Tony Swain is represented by:
The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd,
Floor 1 Suite 6
73 Robertson Street, Glasgow,
G2 8QD
Tel: +44 (0)141 248 3711
www.themoderninstitute.com
and
Kerlin Gallery, Dublin,
Anne¹s Lane
South Anne Street
Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland
For examples of Tony Swains' work visit the Modern Institute's website