An exhibition of new work by Irish-born artist Tony Swain, who trained at Glasgow School of Art and still lives and works in Glasgow. Swain, who was one of the artists representing Scotland in the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, is known for paintings depicting complex private worlds painted over newspaper pages, the newspaper providing both the physical ground and the conceptual starting point of each painting.
Swain paints landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes and interiors, frequented and constructed by mountains, sand dunes, meadows, trees, rocks, lighthouses, power stations, landmarks both natural and man-made, boats, bridges, buildings, houses, furniture and domestic objects. His imagery is often on a vast scale, encompassing huge vistas, but also collapses into intimacy. The marks he makes most usually organise themselves into representation, but sometimes remain as passages of painterly abstraction. A lot of the work generates the expectation of narrative, seeming to lead somewhere both conceptually and formally, yet it eschews this expectation, working instead on and with the picture plane. Fragments of the newspaper survive, transformed and transfigured by their inclusion in Swain’s painted world.
This exhibition will consist entirely of new work, made specifically for The Fruitmarket Gallery.
New Monograph
Tony Swain Narrative Deficiencies Throughout
This major monograph has been published to accompany his solo exhibition The Fruitmarket Gallery, it brings together over 65 works ranging from 2006 to new work produced for this exhibition in 2012.
It includes an introduction by Fiona Bradley, Director of The Fruitmarket Gallery, a new essay by Isla Leaver-Yap (curator and writer based in New York) which contextualises his practice, and a conversation between Tony Swain and artist Karla Black.
ISBN 978-1-908612-04-5
Price: £24.95
Hardback, 280 x 300mm landscape, 112pp, 70 colour illustrations
New Limited Edition Print
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On the occasion of the exhibition Tony Swain has created a limited edition screenprint.
Priced £175 (unframed) £250 (Framed)
Contact the bookshop for more information
E bookshop@fruitmarket.co.uk
P 0131 226 8181
Other limited editions are available including screenprints by Claire Barclay, Christine Borland and Ingrid Calame, as well as a new lithograph print by Callum Innes.
