Who Died?

Moskowitz Bayse is pleased to present Who Died?, an exhibition of new paintings by Eleanor Swordy. The occasion marks the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery.

Using observation and imagination with consistent rigor, Eleanor Swordy’s paintings reveal a simultaneous experience of dream and forged reality. The viewer is led into this world by following illuminated colors and deep shadows across a landscape that contains within it the acidity of a modern world, while holding fast to the ancient precedents which give it steady context. Here, one can pause among brushstrokes and select which sentiment to absorb, before following these marks back out and on to the next.

Quiet but intentional figures occupy these spaces. Engulfed in their respective activities they are unaware of a viewer’s gaze, or that their respective privacy has been forfeited. Rather than be disturbed they hold still so as not to upset the delicate balance of composition, wherein observation and technique fuse to present a vivid tableau. Brightly lit forms and objects circulate, creating anchors for the illusion of depth and allowing an abundance of seemingly collaged techniques to oscillate the possibilities of which reality these paintings present.

Eleanor Swordy (b. 1987, Paris, France) received her BFA from The Cooper Union. Her work has been the subject of a solo exhibition at Full Haus in Los Angeles, and has been included in group presentations at Moskowitz Bayse, TYS Gallery in Copenhagen, and The Hand, The Old School House, ABC No Rio, Robert Goff Gallery, and Envoy Gallery in New York. Her works were featured in both the 2012 and 2010 Brucennial exhibitions, organized by the Bruce High Quality Foundation. She lives and works in Woodstock, Vermont.