Erick Swenson

Not only is Erick Swenson a great artist, look at that brilliant moustache!  Again I have had some time to scour the internet for more of my particular taste of art, and I tell you you are in for a treat in the upcoming weeks. There is plenty of bittersweet macabre coming your way. So without further adieu lets have a look at the work of this contemporary Texan sculptor.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a site belonging to Erick himself, just the galleries that represent him: Saatchi, and James Cohan Gallery . This is really disapointing because I don't really give a shit about where he was born or where he went to school I want to know about how he chooses him imagery and what it is about the stag that interests him? I am more interested in reading what he has to say about his work not what some gallery owner has interpreted on his behalf. I can't find a decent artist statement but maybe when you're famous you don't actually have to write those anymore.

Erick Swenson’s Ne Plus Ultra poses the decaying skull of a deer as a cryptic relic. Swenson captures every uncomfortable detail: white flesh peeled, exposing raw tissue and weathered bone. Cast in resin, Swenson’s sculpture doesn’t exude the expected revulsion of gore, but rather a beatific reverence. In its serene otherworldly aura Swenson’s perished beast evokes a more horrific haunting as a torn cheek reveals a row of carnivorous teeth, and flayed brow appears embossed with mysterious scrimshaw. Through attenuate craftsmanship, Swenson merges ideas of the romantic sublime with chilling surrealism, creating an object suggestive of dark fiction.

(Saatchi Gallery)