ELEANOR SWORDY


ELEANOR SWORDY

Eleanor Swordy’s (b. 1987) painterly oeuvre plays with notions of quotidian narratives and the formal qualities of figuration. With an illusory plasticity of form and shape, Swordy’s intricate rendering of textures and materials present themselves on close inspection. Smooth areas of paint are opposed with mosaic-like details; horizons and vantage points are contorted to unravel unforeseeable compositional possibilities. Structured like a musical piece, Swordy’s work underlies a lyrical rhythm that redefines rules of perception, perspective and space.

The artist’s dream-like environments are inhabited by otherworldly protagonists; twisted, angled and warped across the works like malleable playdough, they are caught in the maelstrom of daily life. The voluptuous figures are often decentralised and nudged to the edges of the canvas, employed by Swordy as a stylistic tool to ‘hold the space and to guide your eye around the image’. With an acute sensibility to art history, an empathetic gaze and technical finesse, Swordy subjects the human body to diagrammatical rules, capturing human experience in abstracted form.

E. Swordy in conversation with M. Vogel, ‘Eleanor Swordy combines Memory with Imagination’, in Art of Choice, 20 September 2019

Image: Hand Pollinating, 2022, oil on canvas, 216 x 228.6 cm.; 85 x 90 in. Photo: def image

Artist Talk

Biography


VITA

1987

Born in Paris, France


2010

The Cooper Union, New York


2008

Rothenberg Travel Fellowship, Berlin


2017

Artist Talk, Visiting Artist Colloquium and Curatorial Conversations, UCSB


2023

Visiting Artist Lecture, BFA, School of Visual Arts, New York


Lives and works in Brooklyn

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Peréz Art Museum, Miami

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023

Busy Signal
Galerie Max Hetzler, London

Compartmentalizing
Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles


2021

Tennis Elbow
Journal Gallery, New York


2020

Earth Signs
Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles


2019

Tennis Elbow
Journal Gallery, New York


2018

Is This Real
Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles


2017

Who Died?
Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles

Home Invader
Full Haus, Los Angeles

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

On Paper
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris


2022

BodyLand, curated by Lauren Taschen
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin


2021

The Talking Stone
Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles

36 Paintings
Harpers, East Hampton

In Situ
Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York


2020

Abstract with Figure
James Fuentes Gallery, New York
 

2018

Works on Paper
Beers, London

Another History
Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York


2016

Finger Food
The Hand, New York

Enlarged Fern
Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles


2015

Face It

Full Haus, Los Angeles


2014

Sadan ser bla maerker ud i himlen
TYS Gallery, Copenhagen


2012

Jamboree
The Old School House, New York

Brucennial 2012: Harder. Better. Fasterer. Strongerer
159 Bleeker St, New York


2011

The Cocktail Party

ABC No Rio, New York

The Hand Presents: Public Sculpture
1117 Dekalb, Brooklyn


2010

A Slow Evening with Slow School
Robert Goff Gallery, New York

Ben and Eleanor
The Cooper Union, New York

Brucennial 2010: Miseducation
350 West Broadway, New York

Mise en Place
Recess Gallery, New York


2009

Group Show
Envoy Gallery, New York


2008

Don’t Mention The Wall
Cooper Union, New York

Goodbye Utopia
La Mama Gallery, New York

Brucennial
Bruce High Quality Foundation, Brooklyn

The Right People
Cooper Union, New York


2007

Corn Field
Cooper Union, New York

Lavender Show
Cooper Union, New York

Videos


Selected Press


Monopol December 2022

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Cultured Mag November 2022

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