"Get Left" a solo exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by Ian
Swanson - February 19 - March 14
Ian Swanson is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and co-founder of the
Detroit-based artist run gallery Org Contemporary.
He received his BFA from Wayne State University and has exhibited
extensively throughout the state.
He was born, raised, and currently lives and works in the Metro Detroit
area.
In this series of works, Swanson explores the relationships between
generational nostalgia, popular culture, spirituality, and identity. His
paintings reach their conclusions through a continuous process of
reinvention. Each work has numerous life-cycles and stages of finish. Works
are made, set aside, and repeatedly and often wholly reworked, leaving
behind ghosts of the compositions and content that came before. His work
takes to task youthful excess, artistic transcendence, media saturation, and
cultural sophistication freely and interchangeably, embracing their
contradictory natures and the riddles and inquiries they create. He
appropriates openly from whatever varied sources fit his needs, mining
imagery and ideas without restriction from kitschy ephemera, to Byzantine
Iconography, to sleek modern product design. He recycles, distributes, and
filters these manifold influences through an elaborate personal lexicon to
create works that are richly layered with both formal and conceptual nuance.
There will be an opening reception on February 19th from 6-10 pm.
Admission is free and complimentary drinks and hors d'oeuvres will be
served.
MOSAIC Productions is a new gallery founded by Jeanne Moore and Billy
Hunter, art curators and exhibition planners whose goal is to promote
artists from the metro Detroit area and get them recognized in the art
communities here and elsewhere in the US.
The gallery is located at 15531 Mack Avenue in Detroit between Alter and
Cadieux, directly across the street from the Hard Luck Lounge.
