Susan Swartz Studios Hosts Sugarcane and GAUCHO GAUCHO Premiere Parties, 2024 Sundance
Image from GAUCHO GAUCHO. Courtesy of Dweck and Kershaw.
Susan Swartz Studios is pleased to welcome back visitors to the Park City studio during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Since opening its doors, the studio space has hosted numerous events at each festival, from film launch parties to artist talks and panels. This year we hosted two film premiere parties for Sugarcane and GAUCHO GAUCHO, both of which Susan Swartz was an executive producer. The events were powerful celebrations, filling the gallery with some of the most esteemed in the industry.
The Sugarcane film is an investigation of unmarked graves at an Indian residential school, igniting a reckoning in the lives of survivors and their descendants, including the film’s co-director who’s father who was born - and nearly buried - at the school. Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, Variety described the film as an “enlightening and infuriating look into systematic abuse.”
GAUCHO GAUCHO is a celebration of Argentine Gauchos, a community of cowboys and cowgirls living beyond the modern world’s boundaries, directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw. The film weaves together a mosaic of tales about gauchos confronting the fragility of their world in the face of unprecedented change. The stories follow the lives of men and women of different ages, backgrounds, and talents who are all connected in their fight to remain free.
Gaucho Gaucho Photographs next to film poster.
In conjunction with GAUCHO GAUCHO, a series of photographs were on display throughout the duration of the festival, created by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw. A portion of the sale of these photographs will be donated to impact programs established in the Santa region where the film was shot. These philanthropic initiatives reflect the filmmakers’ dedication to making a postivie impact on the region served as the backdrop for their evocative documentary.
The prints will be displayed alongside the work of Swartz, whose paintings are characterized by vibrant colors and rich textures inspired by the natural world. Swartz creates with the impassioned intention of inspiring viewers to revere and protect the environment.
Born on the East Coast, Swartz attended Edinboro State College where she studied art as a first-generation college student. She has exhibited extensively across Europe and Asia and was honored as the Olympic Environmental Artist during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Swartz is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (DC), the Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing), the International Olympic Museum (Lausanne), and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts among others. She is now based in Park City, Utah where she creates abstract paintings that explore the intersection of nature and spirituality.
During the festival, Susan Swartz Studios presented Interconnected Forest, an exhibition showcasing one of the major subjects of Swartz's career - trees. Swartz has long been captivated by the monumental beauty of forests, particularly the aspen groves surrounding her Park City home. Her paintings, which pulse with vibrancy and color, simultaneously articulate her awe of the natural world and a rallying cry for its preservation. A fervent environmentalist, Swartz’s art reveals a special connection to the earth and its majesty. The exhibition can be viewed in person until March 31 at 260 Main Street or online.
Interconnected Forest Installation by Susan Swartz, 2023.