Susan Swartz Studios is pleased to present Sunflowers, an exhibition of vibrant, textural works that embody the warmth, energy, and beauty of summer. With each changing season, Swartz finds inspiration in the shifting light, colors, and textures she observes in the natural world. Through her work, Swartz celebrates the beauty of nature, and in doing so, she calls attention to its fragility and the urgent need for its conservation.
Named after Swartz's Sunflowers series, the exhibition showcases a selection of recent work inspired by the landscapes surrounding Swartz’s home studios in Martha's Vineyard and Park City.
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Swartz enjoys tending to her gardens each summer where she finds renewed inspiration in the flowering abundance. From the blooms, to the delicate stems and leaves, to the petals after rain, her gardens never cease to spark new experiments in the studio. With each series, Swartz explores unique ways of seeing through varying techniques and materials.
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The titular Sunflowers series incorporates dried natural elements including flora, herbs, seeds, grasses, and sunflowers. Real sunflower heads are prominently featured, highlighting their dark, circular discs and showy, yellow rays. The series is a continuation of Evolution of Nature, which similarly integrates natural elements and acrylic to create opulent yet playful sculptural surfaces, connecting Susan’s personal journey toward optimal health with the powerful benefits of nature.
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Sunflowers 5, 202360 x 60 in
152.4 x 152.4 cm -
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In the Rhapsody series, Susan works with a reductive palette, accentuating deep emotional connection with singular colors. The monochromatic series builds upon strong contrasts highlighting the rectangular canvas geometry and organic acrylic swirls. Susan sees the use of singular color as an opportunity to provide more visibility to textural movement, allowing the viewer to cycle through emotions and experiences; absorbing, or being absorbed by the influence of color.
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Rhapsody Immersed 4, 202230 x 30 in
76.2 x 76.2 cm -
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Celestial Blues 21, 202372 x 48 in
182.9 x 121.9 cm -
Shimmering Impressions 14, 202248 x 60 in
121.9 x 152.4 cm -
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Alongside two works from the Sunflowers series hangs Spring Muse 3. This painting is a celebration of the exhilarating colors derived from the thaw after a long winter. The surface appears monochromatic at a distance, revealing complexities of color and depth from a closer perspective.
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Spring Muse 3, 201548 x 72 in
121.9 x 182.9 cm -
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The Rhythm of Nature series is distinguished by its tight, repetitive, staccato-like texture. This new technique yields paintings topped with acute, distinct qualities reminiscent of scales – both musical and aquatic in definition. The series utilizes minimalistic color pallets with broad strokes, sweeping and scraping in soft focus. Swartz finds inspiration for both her artistic texture and color in the natural environment and in the atmospheric elements of classical music.
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Nature Revisited 61, 201830 x 30 in
76.2 x 76.2 cm -
Untitled 025, 201348 x 72 in
121.9 x 182.9 cm -
Blooming 9 is inspired by nature’s cyclical elements - from winter’s resurfacing to spring pollination. Crackling textures are embedded with botanical elements, seeds, and other dried properties across a contrasting vibrant background. Adjacent, limited edition black and white giclée prints are suspended in front of a raw concrete wall providing natural elegance and serenity.
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Susan's largest piece from the landmark Evolution of Nature series pops next to Natural Flux 102, a painting that is almost entirely white aside from minimal gray accents that highlight the frosty texture.
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Evolution of Nature 25, 202272 x 120 in
182.9 x 304.8 cm -
Natural Flux 102, 201872 x 72 in
182.9 x 182.9 cm -
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A grid of 12x12” paintings neighbor in a linear format. In combining Swartz’s series such as Emerging Bouquet, Petals & Pollen, Rhapsody, and Synthesis, thick swirls, petal drops, and pastel hues tell a story of lush gardens. Swartz explores decadently thick textures as well as delicately arranged natural elements. Real sunflowers appear again in Sunflowers 6, and tender slices of dried apple in Botanical Embrace resemble blooming florals.
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Emerald Blue, 202160 x 36 in
152.4 x 91.4 cm -
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Emerging Bouquet 45, 202024 x 12 in
61 x 30.5 cm -
At the back of the gallery hangs Nature’s Bouquet 19, a vision of flowers emerging before a field of vivid green with strong vertical striations and globs of tenacious color. This piece pairs well with adjacent Emerging Bouquet 45 as it pulls accents in a light-hearted conversation of purples and greens.
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Nature's Bouquet 19, 201948 x 72 in
121.9 x 182.9 cm -
In all of Swartz’s work, lush textures and brilliant color are a focus when expressing her internal landscape. Swartz paints to communicate her mission - that the natural world and all its beauty needs to be cherished, shared, and protected.
Swartz's paintings have been featured in major solo exhibitions at Galerie Noack in Berlin; the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing; the Manetti Shrem Museum at UC Davis in California; the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg; the Ludwig Museum in Budapest; the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz; Kollegienkirche in Salzburg; the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC; the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City; and the Springville Museum in Springville, Utah. Her work is featured in numerous private and public collections around the world. She is represented by Jason McCoy Gallery in New York City. Swartz paints from studios in Park City and Martha’s Vineyard.
Visit Susan Swartz Studios at 260 Main Street in Park City, open 12-7PM daily.
