Heather B. Swann has established a formidable reputation as a maker of sculptural objects and ink drawings of dark, sensual and fantastic presence. With influences ranging widely across themes and imagery drawn from museum culture, history, mythology and natural science, Swann works outwards from the poetics of intimate sensation, emotion and thought. She is closely engaged with both the eternal present of perception and her own world of feeling, as well as making allusion to the particular crises of our troubled times. Her project is the translation of such fleeting phenomenological observations into form. Swann’s figurative reflexes often produce images of human or animal bodies, semblances of life kinked by surrealist convulsion and an instinct for abstraction.
Swann has been making art for more than twenty years, mostly drawings and sculptures, although in more recent years her practice has expanded to incorporate painting, video, installation and performance. In addition to presenting more than twenty solo shows since 1993, Heather has had work included in numerous significant curated group exhibitions, including Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2021); Magic Object: Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2016); and Streetwise: contemporary print culture, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2015). Her work is held in many private and public collections. In 2022, Swann was commissioned, in collaboration with Nonda Katsalidis, to create a permanent public artwork for the Setouchi Triennale, Japan.
Fisticuff
2019
ink and acrylic on paper
90.0 x 113.0 cm
Oh lover, hold me close - Owl in the owl cave
2021
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
two panel: 213 x 198 each; overall: 213 x 396 cm (unstretched)
Oh lover, hold me close - Green slippers
2021
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
two panel: 213 x 198 each; overall: 213 x 396 cm (unstretched)
Oh lover, hold me close - The pool
2021
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
four panel: 213 x 181 cm each; overall: 213 x 724 cm (unstretched)
Oh lover, hold me close - Leaf in the wind
2021
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
two panel: 213 x 198 each; overall: 213 x 396 cm (unstretched)
Oh lover, hold me close - The sound of the rock garden
2021
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
213 x 198 (unstretched)
Oh lover, hold me close - The nest
2021
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
213 x 198 cm (unstretched)
Oh lover, hold me close
2021
installation view
Oh lover, hold me close
2021
installation view
Oh lover, hold me close
2021
installation view
Oh lover, hold me close
2021
installation view
Oh lover, hold me close
2021
installation view
Oh lover, hold me close
2021
installation view
I thought about you all night
2019
ink and acrylic on paper
90.0 x 114.0 cm
Melancholia
2019
ink and acrylic on paper
90.0 x 114.0 cm
Stamper & Bubblehead
2019
ink and acrylic on paper
90.0 x 114.0 cm
Medieval hand, (red head)
2019
ink and acrylic on paper
91.0 x 114.0 cm
Feeler
2020
Installation view
Feeler
2020
Installation view
Feeler
2020
Installation view
Feeler
2020
Installation view
Feeler
2020
Installation view
Feeler
2020
Installation view
Ouroboros 2
2018
wood, modelling compound, stain, wax polish
128.0 x 116.0 x 12.0 cm
Oh lover, hold me close
2021
installation view
The well
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
The rock
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
You can tell me anything
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
Anything. You can tell me.
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
Blood nose
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
Briar rose
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
Tell me anything
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
Uxorious lung
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
A divine comedy
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
Lovers Rock
2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
40.0 x 40.0 cm
Medieval hand
2019
ink and acrylic on paper
90.0 x 114.0 cm
Forked tongue
2019
ink and acrylic on paper
91.0 x 113.0 cm
HeavyHead
2016
plywood, paper, faux fur, wheels
installation view Nervous preview, Medley Hall Melbourne, National Gallery of Australia 2016
Boys and girls
2010
wood, modelling compound, glass eyes, ink, boot polish
5 elements, approximately 107 x 130 x 135 cm
Black sun and Blue moon
2014
paper, glue, ink
two elements 30 x 35 x 30 cm & 30 x 33 x 30 cm
Talking heads rocker
2016
109 x 300 x 50 cm
I thought about you twice, nothing else
2019
ink and acrylic on paper
92.0 x 114.0 cm
Shoulder height
2014
steel, wood, paper, ink
installation view, Nervous preview, Medley Hall Melbourne
Vanilla
2013
water pipes, muslin, paper, binder, pink pigment, marble dust and 3 small photographs of Astrid Connelly
240 x 70 x 50 cm
Night's tongue
2012
metal, plaster, modelling stuff, ink, boot polish
100 x 20 x 55 cm
Lumps and sticks
2013
metal, paper, resin, binder, pigment, marble dust
installation view Solitaire, TarraWarra Museum of Art Victoria 2014
Luna
2017
patinated bronze
58 x 18 x 8 cm
Hypertext
2010
ink and wash on paper
twelve sheets, each 70.0 x 100.0 cm; overall 280.0 x 300.0 cm
Mortgage
2011
bronze
185.0 x 60.0 x 50.0 cm
Breathing underwater
2017
ink and oil on paper
105.0 x 150.0 cm; 125.0 x 170.0 cm framed