Henry Swanson

His practices consist of both two and three dimensional works. In two dimensions he produce large scale oil paintings on canvas and smaller mixed media works on paper. His works on paper, which I refer to as “works on paper” simply to categorize- not because they are all on paper – are comprised of collage elements and both figurative and abstract drawing done with office grade supplies rather than archival materials. The collage elements he work with come from current paper media; the daily printed press is a huge inspiration to my work. Art exists to him as a visual and tactile experience in which I play more the role of a craftsman than he does a director of culture. he do not formulate thoughts or opinions on the symbolic nature of my work before the work itself is fully actualized in his eyes and make most of his process decisions based on composition or color-structure elements; the practice for him is in motivating the viewers eye to maintain dialogue with the page, not on cultural inclination but, on some chemical principle that draws the eye in to each piece regardless of what it might be ‘saying’. Often inwardly interested in the financial implications of his practice, the materials he work with all hold for him symbols of social value as my subject matter. The clash of oil paint- the historic medium of the wealthy and privileged used to depict imagery of luxury items and decadent foods shown across hand-crafted canvas structures- with accessible media of boxed crayons, BIC pens, and fluorescent stickers on the recognizable compositions of the Sports Sunday page of the New York Times. He is constantly fascinated with themes of futility, de-valuation, non sequiturs, and the ambiguity and understanding of cultural luxury.