Sally Swingewood is obsessive. If she cannot paint she will draw. If she cannot draw she will write, or construct - sculptures, boxes, books... whatever - using any materials at hand.
She is also endlessly fascinated by people and places, specifically London and those who call it home. The energy of the city, the grubby, changing beauty of it all, is at the heart of Swingewood's work.
In her cityscapes she tries to capture the paradoxes: the shifting, mesmeric, dynamism that twinkles, jewel-like, despite the litter, the grime, the crime, the pollution... In her portraits she examines the relationships the city dwellers have with each other and with the city itself. She understands the yearnings to run away, discover an Eden beyond the M25 and yet knows it is an illusion (having tried to find it herself); she wants to shout out for the city kids who have become demonised because of their fashion choices; she is intrigued and in awe of those who risk everything to leave their homeland and start afresh in the UK's capital. They all connect. They are all neighbours, potential friends and subjects of painterly examination.
Sally trained at Goldsmiths College, London but still prefers painting to conceptualism.
Awards
Independent Artist Group, Artist of the Year 2005
Artists Choice Awards - Abstract works 2005, 2006
Representation
Skylark Gallery, OXO TOwer Wharf, London SE1
Recent exhibitions
August 2010 Summer sizzle, The gallery@oxo, London
June 2010 Featured Artist, Skylark 2 Gallery, London
January 2010 London Vox, Red Gate Gallery, London
December 2009 Beddow + Battini Town, Scala St, London
September 2009 Showcase London, 1001 Cafe, Brick Lane, London
August 2009 Art in nature, Eardisland, Herefordshire
October 2008 Facing Walls, DANKHAUS, Chicago
May 2008 Pause: A Visual Intermezzo, Scharpenberg Gallery, Chicago
October 2007 Germans In Mind, Scharpenberg & Rough Space Gallery, Chicago
September 2007 Bell Art Exhibition, Avram Eisen Gallery, Chicago
January 2007 Independent Artists Exhibition, View From The Top, Nottingham
November 2006 24 London, Touring exhibition (London, Berlin, Milan, Barcelona)
November 2006 Grande, Gesarte Galerie de Arte, Sotogrande, Spain
August 2006 My Space, Sassoon Gallery, Peckham, London
August 2006 Painting Shakespeare's Words, Red Lion, Chicago
February 2006 Love Across The Ocean, The Pavillion, London
February 2006 Love Across The Ocean, Avram Eisen Gallery, Chicago
November 2005 Selected Miniatures, Brixton Co-Op, London
October 2005 Faces, Brewhouse Centre For The Arts, Staffordshire
October 2005 International Art Trading Cards, Walcott Chapel Gallery, Bath
March 2005 Lives Lived, Brewhouse Centre For The Arts, Staffordshire
