SUSAN SWARTZ FEATURED IN A SOLO EXHIBITION AT THE LUDWIG MUSEUM AT THE STATE RUSSIAN MUSEUM IN ST PETERSBURG

“PERSONAL PATH” IS ON VIEW NOVEMBER 27, 2017 TO JANUARY 28, 2018

“Personal Path” at the Ludwig Museum in St Petersburg is the first show in Russia for Park City, Utah and Martha’s Vineyard artist Susan Swartz. More than 100 paintings from the early 2000s through the present will be on view from Tuesday, November 27, 2017 to January 28, 2018.

In 2014, Swartz attended the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia, absorbing the grandeur of her surroundings to gain inspiration for her paintings. “I came away with a stronger and more intense interpretation for my following paintings, accelerating me into more aggressive and abstract interpretations of my environment,” Swartz comments. “It is always amazing to me how these experiences jolt my consciousness and take me into expanding interpretations of nature.” Swartz’s return to Russia continues her journey along her personal path: this solo exhibition openly displays her growth as an artist.

In the forward to the exhibition catalogue for “Personal Path,” Russian art critic Alexander Borovsky describes the significance of Swartz’s artwork: “The paintings transform and combine the experience of the artist’s presence in nature, of personal contact with it –– both of the sublime poetic variety, and of the everyday, almost automatic, tactile kind.” Swartz challenges the viewer to reflect upon the ever-shifting dimensionality of human existence.

It is a momentous undertaking for an American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Ludwig Museum at the Marble Palace of State Russian Museum in St Petersburg.  Swartz joins Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana and Judith Rothschild in the privilege of exhibiting at this museum.  Swartz looks forward to growing her international presence as her art reaches a new audience.

Professor Doctor Dieter Ronte curated the exhibition with the assistance of esteemed Russian art critic Alexander Borovsky and the Foundation for Art and Culture Bonn.  The Foundation for Art and Culture Bonn has produced exhibitions of Anselm Kiefer, Markus Lüpertz and Gerhard Richter. In addition, the Foundation has been widely recognized for its groundbreaking cross-cultural show, “China 8,” which featured works of Chinese artists in nine museums across Germany. Its counterpart, “Germany 8,” featured German art in eight venues across Beijing.

Swartz’s work has been presented in solo exhibitions at the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Hungary; the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, Germany; Kollegienkirche Salzburg in Austria; the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC; the Springville Museum in Springville, Utah; and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City.  Her studios are in Park City, Utah and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Exhibition catalogues are available for purchase. 

Additional information, photos and interviews are available upon request.