I paint chimeric beings. I breach boundaries of human and animal, male and female, animate and inanimate . Vibrant color and layered marks create odd kinships and beautiful grotesques. A range of materials and figurative styles stir and weave eyes, teeth, fur and feather. Hybrid bodies suggest multiple intertwined identities. These emerging beings —made of fire and air, fingers and hair —defy divisions and categories. Disparate parts evolving together, these amalgams question assumptions about ourselves, allow different relationships to emerge. It is by seeing ourselves in relationship that we more easily find value in the unfamiliar.
These beings crawl and climb, stumble and fly through their worlds. Imperfect and impure, these hybrids reflect both our microbiome and social nature. We are universes and ecospheres: accretions of star stuff and navel lint. We inhabit both the transcendent and mundane.
These painted beings are both actor and acted upon. Each part fuels the whole. I see myself, other people, and the world in a constant state of transition and transformation. I emphasize becoming over being. I break the world and rearrange its pieces to explore how they might fit. These indiscrete entities constitute a Mongrel Manifesto.
Amy Swartelé (b.1972. Kansas City, MO. USA) lives in Potsdam NY and Montreal QC. She is an American and Belgian painter. She earned her BA with honors from Wesleyan University, and her MFA in Painting from SUNY at Buffalo. Exhibitions include over 20 solo shows in the USA, France, Belgium and Canada, most recently in 2021 at the Massillon Museum (Massillon, OH) and Arts Points de Vue (Lauzerte, France). Swartelé has participated in over 110 group exhibitions in the USA, across Europe, and in India and Canada. Group shows include AIR gallery (Brooklyn NY) Articule Gallery (Montreal , QC), Governors Island Art Fair (NYC), NordArt (Budelsdorf, Germany), and Art en Capital (Paris, France).
Her work has been curated and juried into shows by critics such as Donald Kuspit and Charlotta Kotik, and by curators from major museums including the Brooklyn Museum, New Museum, the Studio Museum, Whitney Museum and MoMA. Awards include those from Fondacion de la Artes, in Lleida, Spain, The New York Foundation for the arts, the New York State Council on the arts, The Rhode Island state council on the arts, and the Chautauqua Center for visual arts.Professor of Painting at the State University of New York at Potsdam.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Supernormal, Massillon Museum, Massillon, OH
2021 Amy Swartelé, Arts Points de Vue, Lauzerte, France
2018 Strange Flesh/Chair Bizarre, Montreal Art Center, Montreal QC, Canada
2010 Heavy Water, Jungle Science, Binghamton , NY
2009 Liminal Kerozene Gallery, Montreal, Canada
2009 Behind the Mirror St. John’s Gallery, Waterloo, Belgium
2008 Flux Andrée – Macé Galerie, Paris, France
2008 Miroir, L’Alliance, Viroflay France
2007 Flesh and Bone, Cecilia Coker Bell Gallery, Hartsville, SC
2004 Amy Swartelé – Selected Works, Lake Placid Center for the Arts, NY
2002 The Garden of Plenty, Dodds Gallery, University of New Haven, CT
2000 Metamorph, Gibson Gallery, SUNY at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY
1999 Subcutaneous, Winfisky Gallery, Salem State College, Salem, MA
1998 Catafalque, Attleboro Art Museum, Attleboro, MA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Goddesses and Monsters Ladies Room LA, Los Angeles, CA. (online) curated by the Association of Hysteric Curators
2023 National Juried Exhibition. Shmucker Gallery, Gettysburg PA. juror Lauren Nye, Assoc. Curator, Hunter Museum of American Art
2022 Holiday, LABspace, Hillsdale NY
2022 Woodcuts with Big Ink, Gibson Gallery, Potsdam, NY
2019 Situate, Articule Gallery, Montreal, QC, Canada
2019 Menagerie Contemporary Art Exchange, Washington, NC
2018 Facing Disjunction, AIR Gallery, Brooklyn NY. Curator-Judith Tolnick Champa
2018 Across the Divide, Gibson Gallery, Potsdam, NY
2017 We Are Family, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY
2017 Gathering Differences, AIR Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Curator Helga Christopherson, New Museum, NYC
2016 In the Secret Garden, AIR. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Curator, Rocio Aranda-Alvarado
2016 Governors Island Art Fair, House 5B. NYC, NY
2015 Transformed Viewpoints, AIR Gallery, Brooklyn, NY., Charlotta Kotik, Curator
2015 Strange Paradise, First Street Gallery, NYC , Steven Harvey,Curator
2015 Futerotica, Conartist, NYC.
2014 NordArt 2014, Carlshutte, Budelsdorf, Germany (catalog)
2014 11th AIR Biennial, A.I. R. Gallery , Brooklyn , NY. Nancy Princenthal, Curator
2014 Layers, CWoW Gallery, Newark, NJ. Curator Aimee Hertog.
2013 Renewal and Revulsion, Visual Arts Gallery, NJCU, Jersey City, NJ
2012 Art of Imagination Phantasten Museum, Vienna, Austria
2012 Legitimate Vagina, Miranda Arts Project Space, Portchester. NY
2011 Phoenix and Owl, HANGAR311, Mechelen, Belgium. (2 person exhibition)
2011 14th Annual National, Gallery West, Alexandria VA. Juror Lenny Campbello
2011 26th International, University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX. juror Cotter Luppi
2011 Inside Outside, GoggleWorks Art Center, Reading PA juror-Bruce Samuelson
2010 5 Decades of the Fantastic, Murphy Hill Gallery, Chicago IL
2010 Media Loft +, Media Loft Gallery, New Rochelle, NY
2008 Art en Capital, Salon Comparaisons, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2008 Llei d’Art, Palau de Vidre, Lleida, Spain
2007 Florence Biennale, Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy
2007 Personal Carnival, Patanjali, Global Arts Village, New Delhi, India
2006 TRIO, Lake Placid Center for the Arts, Lake Placid, NY (3 person),
2005 7th Annual All-Media Exhibition, Touchstone Gallery, Washington, DC. Britta Konau, Assoc Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art,
2005 National Juried Competition, Phoenix Gallery, NYC, NY. Juror – Trevor Smith, Curator, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY
2004 47th Chautauqua National Exhibition, Chautauqua Center for the Visual Arts, Chautauqua, NY. Juror – Donald Kuspit (2nd place award)
2003 54th Art of the North East Exhibition, Silvermine Art Guild, New Canaan, CT. Juror Harry Philbrick, Director Aldritch Contemporary Art Museum
2002 20th Annual Exhibition, Pleiades Gallery, NYC, NY Juror - Larry Rinder, Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art
2001 Figures as Objects/Objects as Figures, Brownson Gallery, Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY (2 person exhibition)
2000 Works on Paper, (3 person)Graphic Eye Gallery, Port Washington, NY. Juror - Star Figura, Curator MoMA
2000 Women’s Caucus for Art Traveling Exhibition, O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston, Houston, TX
2000 Places of the Mind, The Mansfield Art Center, Mansfield, OH
1999 Alternative Tentacles, Liebman Magnan Gallery, New York City, NY (3 person)
1997 The Gramercy International Contemporary Art Fair, LA, Chateau Marmont, West Hollywood, CA
SELECTED PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
2021 land, water, air. Riverside Art Projects. Watertown, NY
2021 Fall Island Mural - Potsdam, NY -Funded by NYSCA
2020 Romp SUNY at Potsdam.NY
2020 Mural for the Masses. Potsdam, NY
COLLECTIONS
Global Arts Village, New Delhi, India
SB Alliance Viroflay, France
Alliance II, Viroflay France
Bongrain Benelux, Brussels, Belgium
Savencia, Viroflay, France
Columbo headquarters , Andover MA
Can Serrat Residency , El Bruc, Spain
State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo NY
State University of New York Gibson Museum, Potsdam, NY
SELECT AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, GRANTS
2020 Individual Artist Decentralization Grant. New York State Council on the Arts.
2017 Cover image Award, ImageOutWrite vol 6, Rochester, NY
2016 Kimmel Harding Nelson Residency, Nebraska City, NE
2013 Artist in Residence- Merit Fellowship and New York State Fellowship, Contemporary Arts Center, Troy NY
2011 Can Serrat Residency, CanSerrat, Spain
2010 Stone Canoe Prize Winner
2009 MARK Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts
2008 Premi a la Millor Obra Figurativa, Fondacion de las Artes, Lleida, Spain
2008 Strategic Stipend Award, New York Foundation for the Arts,
2007 Artist in Residence Fellowship, Global Arts Village, New Delhi, India
2002 Constance Saltonstall Residency Award, Ithaca, NY
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts, Painting. SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY,
Bachelor of Arts, with Honors in Studio Arts, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.
RECENT EMPLOYMENT
Professor of Art State University of New York at Potsdam Fall 2011 - present.
PUBLICATIONS
Women United Art Magazine. Issue III spring 2023 “Curator’s Pick” page 136. May 2023
Mass Musings Podcast. “Amy Swartelé: Supernormal”. Podcast. November 2021.
Art Points de Vue – Lauzerte. “Expo août 2021”. YouTube video. August 2021.
La Depeche. “Lauzerte : vernissage à Art Points de vue” (La Depeche: Culture et loisirs, expositions). August 2021.
Colello, Isabella. “SUNY Potsdam professor brightens the streets during COVID-19 pandemic”. InformNNY: ABC50 Now. Interview and article. August 2020.
Sideshow Starters. Featured artist. Not Your Mothers Breast Milk. June 2018.
Tolnick Champa, Judith. “Facing Disjunction”. (AIR Gallery: Catalog). May 2018.
Conartist Collective. “Five years inside of New York City lower east side art collective”. 2018.
Lez Spread the Word. Inside front and back cover art. (Lez Spread the Word: Issue 3). Fall 2018.
Image/Out Write. Front cover image. (Image/Out: Image/Out Write). 2017.
Christofferson, Helga. “Gathering Differences”. (AIR Gallery: Catalog). May 2017.
Aranda-Alvarado, Rocío. “In the Secret Garden”. (AIR Gallery: Catalog). May 2016.
Kotik, Charlotta. “Transformed Viewpoints”. (AIR Gallery: Catalog). May 2015.
Hortillosa, Summer Dawn. “NJCU's 'REvulsion' challenges the notion that all art is beautiful”. NJ.com: The Jersey Journal. Article. October 2013.
Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery. (Valdosta State University: Catalog). 2011.
Stone Canoe. Volume 5. (Syracuse University: Stone Canoe). 2011.
Hangar311. “Swartelé’s Carnaval Van Demonen en Freaks: Fascinerend, angstaanjagend, verleidend…”. (Hangar311: Magazine 4). 2011.pp.78-85
Campello, F. Lennox. “Come join me”. Daily Campello Art News. Blog. February 2011.
GoggleWorks. Catalog. 2011.
Ragazine. Column. November 2010.
West Kentucky Star. “Painter Amy Swartelé”. (West Kentucky Star: Local Regional News). 2010.
ArtOdyssey. Blog. 2010
Studio Visit. (Studio Visit: Volume 5). 2009.
Agassiz Harrison Observer. “Antevasin: One who lives at the border”. May 2009.
Schira, Ron. “At New Arts Program, Big Impressions”. (Reading Eagle Correspondent). May 2009.
Llei D’Art. Catalog. 2008.
Grand Palais Paris. Comparisons. Catalog. 2008.
La Manana. “Llei D’Art abre en el Palau de Vindre”. April 2008.
Sribny, Didier. Documentary. Andree Mace Gallery, Didier Sribny. 2007.
Florence Biennale. Catalog. Page 708. 2007.
Bannon, Anthony. “Art exhibit advances 73 invitations to create – art review”. (The Chautauquan Daily: Guest critic). February 2000.
Harrison, Helen A. “Beyond Ewww’: A World Of Insects and Spiders”. (The New York Times). February 2000.