Erick Lawrence Swenson (born 1972 in Phoenixville, PennsylvaniaErick Swenson exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery, Saatchi Gallery, London. Retrieved November 5, 2006.) 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,Erick Swenson January 26, 2003 - May 4, 2003 , Hammer Gallery, Los Angeles. Retrieved July 5, 2012. 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,Sightings: Erick Swenson April 14 - September 9, 2012, Nasher Sculpture Centre. Retrieved May 5, 2012. the first solo exhibition there by a Dallas artist.
Swenson is known for his urethane resin recreations of creatures in death or distress.Love, Katherine, "Abstruction: The Sculpture of Erick Swenson" in Honolulu Museum of Art, Mar•Apr•May, 2018, p. 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, HawaiiLove, Katherine, "Abstruction: The Sculpture of Erick Swenson" in Honolulu Museum of Art, Mar•Apr•May, 2018, pp. 4-5 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
Footnotes