Ian Swanson
Standards

June 22 - August 10, 2024

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 22, 6-8 pm

(Core City Location)

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Matéria is pleased to present Standards, Ian Swanson's third solo exhibition with the gallery, and first in his hometown of Detroit since 2016. Standards brings together the artist's latest cycle of large-scale monochrome paintings layered with dense textures and expressive mark-making after a period of increasingly subtractive approaches to his painterly application. Swanson’s relationship to the figure and ground continues to manifest in abstractions that ruminate on the confines of physical experience. His subjects are intimately woven into their environments, like vapor forming and then dissipating with time, each composition providing glimpses into a world of wandering silhouettes, momentarily suspended.

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These leathery vinyl surfaces are fastened together with zip ties and cordage, and stretched taut between stainless steel hardware. This material exploration throughout his practice fuels an act of searching that is animated by the repeated use of ghostly bodies, each figure a channel through which to filter an introspective study on the nature of the human condition amidst the influences of daily life.

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Swanson has been exploring the distinction between image making and its objecthood for more than a decade. His earlier works explored abstraction through impasto on canvas, sculpture composed of found objects, and  audio-based performance. In recent bodies of work, the compositions of his paintings were reserved and minimal. Standards marks a return to the painterly techniques of works from earlier in his career.

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Standards opens at Matéria's Core City location on Saturday, June 22, with a reception with the artist from 6-8 pm.

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IAN SWANSON

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Ian Swanson (b. 1983, Detroit, MI) received a BFA from Wayne State University, and an MFA from Pratt Institute. Most recently, his work has been the subject of solo and two-person presentations at Plague Space, Krasnodar (2023); Catbox Contemporary, Queens, NY (2020); ASHES/ASHES, New York and Los Angeles (2019 and 2016); Hot Wheels Projects, Athens (2019); MX Gallery, New York (2018); As it Stands, Los Angeles (2017); University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA (2017); Jack Barrett Gallery, New York (2017); David Shelton Gallery, Houston (2016); and Simone DeSousa Gallery, Detroit (2016). Swanson has participated in notable group exhibitions, including Chernobyl Papers, Pripyat, UA, and online (2020); Dark Mode, ASHES/ASHES, New York (2019); and Peekskill Project V, Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY (2012). In 2022, a review of Swanson’s practice appeared in the anthology Human Rights, published by Amphetamine Sulphate. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including i-D, OFluxo, Artforum, Art Viewer, Coeval, and New American Paintings #95 and #105. Swanson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.