Ena Swansea

About Ena Swansea

Ena Swansea (b. 1965, Charlotte, North Carolina) defies convention and conventional definition. Her work largely addresses not just an urban experience, but a “Manhattan experience,” defying the motto of her bucolic North Carolina birthplace: “To be, rather than to seem.” Using her own hard-sought digital photographs, unlike many figurative painters who appropriate their imagery, Swansea constructs compositions that investigate spectacles – natural and manmade – emphasizing the urban. Even her haystack paintings are more depictions of high-rise architecture, rather than country idylls.

Trained in film-making at the University of South Florida, Swansea’s canvases are visually and physically cinematic. It begins with her grounds, rich graphite or sprayed stainless steel, which have the near-reflective quality of traditional glass-beaded movie screens. Rather than film stills, her paintings are more like film loops. At a distance they are succinct narratives; up close they are audacious patterns and abstractions.

Swansea’s juicy application of paint recalls John Singer Sargent, Vincent Van Gogh and Diego Velázquez, all of whom drew with a brush. Swansea escapes the brooding mood which has become signature (and popular) among many contemporary painters. Swansea interprets her America and her Manhattan using what Patricia Ellis has described as “alchemic tension.” As such, her work is more abstract-impressionistic than hyper-realistic, especially as you approach the surface. Her work is lush, alive, even luxuriant.

Upcoming exhibitions: