Ross + Kramer is pleased to announce the opening of Henry Swanson’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery, In The Nosebleeds, opening June 22, 2023 from 6–8pm. This exhibition marks the artist’s third solo presentation in New York.
Featuring a variety of costumed subjects, the exhibition and its constituent paintings navigate themes of nostalgia and discomfort. The figures, ranging from mascots to runway models, reference the artist’s childhood in Texas through to his current life in New York. Often delicately bisected down the center, Swanson’s forms embody conflicting sentiments surrounding deceptive identity in adolescence and adulthood. Namely, that of the “childhood fear of the unknown, or cartooned ‘other’, and the adult farce of being something less true than one’s own self.”
Swanson himself is not now, nor has he ever been a mascot. He has never jumped through a hoop of fire to dunk any sort of object. He has never ‘brought the noise’ or spiked the ‘aupplause-o-meter’. His knowledge of the ownership or operation of a t-shirt cannon (as far as we know) is minimal at best. A source close to the painter says he does not know how to pump up the jam. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Swanson often concentrated on works revolving around themes of ‘defeating the Mon-Stars’ and being caught on the ‘Kiss Cam’—aside from his lesser-known series on the concept of ‘keeping that weak trash out of here’. When reached for comment, Tim Kitzrow (NBA Jam) said of Swanson’s latest series: “BoomShakalaka!”.
Henry Swanson (b. 1993) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. The artist’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues such as Anthony Gallery, Chicago, IL; Wadström Tönnheim Gallery, Marbella, Spain; Massey Klein Gallery, New York, NY; Kime Contemporary, Indianapolis, IN; Anna Zorina Gallery, New York, NY; and The Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas, TX