Erick Swenson Explained

Erick Lawrence Swenson^[1] (born Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, 1972^[2]) is an American figurative sculptor living and working in Dallas, Texas.

Education

He earned a B.F.A. in Studio Art, Painting and Drawing, from the School of Visual Arts, University of North Texas,^[3] in 1999.

Exhibitions

Swenson has shown internationally at galleries and museums such as the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Villa Stuck in Munich, and was included in the 2004 Biennial Exhibition of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He held an exhibition in 2012 at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, running from April 14,^[4] the first solo exhibition there by a Dallas artist.

Swenson is known for his urethane resin recreations of creatures in death or distress.^[5] I Am What I Isn't, from 2017, is an example of the artist's finely detailed sculptures made entirely from cast urethane resin and acrylic paint. Some of his creatures are displayed in elaborate dioramas. Swenson's scenes often involve fabricated animals like deer, sheep, and apes captured frozen in allegorical moments. Inspired by museum exhibits and model making, Swenson's tableaux conjure the Romanticism of Caspar David Friedrich and the imagery of wintry Bavarian fairy tales.

Swenson is represented by the James Cohan Gallery in New York.

Public Collections

• The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
• Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii^[6]
• Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas
• Maramotti Collection, Reggio Emilia, Italy
• Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth, Texas
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
• The Saatchi Collection, London
• Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Awards

• 1999 The Arch and Anne Giles Kimbrough Fund, The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
• 2004 The Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant Program Award, The Joan Mitchell Foundation

References

• Honolulu Museum of Art, Abstruction: The Sculpture of Erick Swenson, Honolulu Museum of Art, 2018,
• Kent, Rachel, Swallow Swenson: An Exhibition of Sculptural Works by Ricky Swallow and Erick Swenson, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, 2001

Notes and References

1. News: Brinkley. Rob. Where Dallas artist Erick Swenson hangs his hat (and his deer heads) . Dallas News. April 26, 2012. July 5, 2012.
2. http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/erick_swenson.htm Erick Swenson exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery
3. http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/36 Erick Swenson January 26, 2003 - May 4, 2003
4. http://www.nashersculpturecenter.org/Exhibitions/Sightings/Erick-Swenson Sightings: Erick Swenson April 14 - September 9, 2012
5. Love, Katherine, "Abstruction: The Sculpture of Erick Swenson" in Honolulu Museum of Art, Mar•Apr•May, 2018, p. 5
6. Love, Katherine, "Abstruction: The Sculpture of Erick Swenson" in Honolulu Museum of Art, Mar•Apr•May, 2018, pp. 4-5