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.
In addition to presenting more than twenty solo shows since 1993, Swann has had work included in numerous significant curated group exhibitions, including Inner Sanctum, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2024); From the other side, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2023-2024); NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2023); The National 4: New Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2023); Setouchi Triennale, Japan, (2022); 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 (2016); and Streetwise: contemporary print culture, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2015). Swann is represented in many private and public collections.
Ouroboros
2023
installation view
NGV Triennial
Sean Fennessy
From the other side
2023
installation view
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
Andrew Curtis
Human Frailty
2023
installation view
From the other side, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
Andrew Curtis
Human Frailty (detail)
2023
wood, glass, modelling stuff, forged steel, lacquer, brass
Andrew Curtis
Place for Sea Dreamers
2022
installation view
Collaboration with Nonda Katsalidis for the 2022 Setouchi Triennale
The Three Sisters
2023
installation view
From the other side, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
Andrew Curtis
The Three Sisters (detail)
2023
wood, forged steel, ink, stain, lacquer, wax, paper, binder, modelling stuff, pigment, marble dust, glass
From the other side, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
Andrew Curtis
Col Tempo
2023
installation view
Twist, TMAG
Heather B. Swann: Leda and the Swan
2021
installation view
TarraWarra Museum of Art
Andrew Curtis
Leda and the Swan
2021
studio shot
Would I Lie to you
2022
Tasmanian oak, stained wax
21.0 x 100.0 x 12.0 cm
Last night on earth (studio shot)
2023
installation view
Twist, TMAG
Last night on earth (detail 1)
2023
installation view
Twist, TMAG
The staggering girl
2021
synthetic polymer paint on hardboard
nine panels, each 76 x 76 cm; overall 228 x 228 cm
Sydney-Contemporary_Station_Sept 23-18
Sydney Contemporary
2023
installation view
Photo: Document Photography
Luna
HBS
Man
2014
metal, modelling compound, ink, wax
45.0 x 39.0 x 33.0 cm
Talking heads rocker
Shoulder height
Ouroboros
2018
wood, modelling compound, stain, wax polish
128.0 x 116.0 x 12.0 cm
Dark is the night before day
2023
installation view
Photo: Julien Scheffer
An unmade bed
installation view
Document Photography
An unmade bed
installation view
Document Photography
An unmade bed
installation view
Document Photography
An unmade bed
installation view
Document Photography
An unmade bed
installation view
Document Photography
Oh lover, hold me close
Oh lover, hold me close
Oh lover, hold me close - Owl in the owl cave
Oh lover, hold me close - The pool
Oh lover, hold me close - Green slippers
Oh lover, hold me close
Oh lover, hold me close
Oh lover, hold me close