More than excited about this opening on Saturday at New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles. SWOON baby!
New Image Art is pleased to announce the first Los Angeles solo exhibition by SWOON, "Drown Your Boats." Partially inspired by Angela Carter's "Burning Your Boats," this show, and much of SWOON's work is not only a momentary glimpse in contemporary life; her work speaks of tales, legends, and variations on mythic themes, sparked by great vitality, inventiveness, and a deeply macabre imagination. Having recently participated in an armada of sorts SWOON along with other fellow Pittsburgh "boat punks" constructed their own flotilla and sailed down the Hudson and Mississippi Rivers. For this new exhibition SWOON will be executing a canoe as her central installation piece that will later become part of a Deitch Projects show this Fall.
SWOON's worlds are often populated by realistically rendered-- and evocatively cutout street people, often her friends and family. Riding bikes, talking on a stoop, going grocery shopping-- these people traverse a cityscape of her own unique invention. Bridges, fire escapes, water towers and street signs create crisscrossing shadows and spaces through which her figures move. Inspired by both art historical and folk sources, ranging from German Expressionist wood block prints to Indonesian shadow puppets, SWOON is a master of using cut paper to play with positive and negative space in a conceptually driven exploration of the experience of the streets.
