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
Selected Works
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
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
Cultured Mag November 2022