"They Look Like Butterflies 23" Painting

Courtlandt Swartz (b. 1993) lives and works in Toronto Canada. Swartz graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design University with a BFA in 2015. Having attended Toronto’s Academy of Realist Art from 2010 - 2012, Swartz found the inspiration to create works that involve the viewer without the use of any subject matter or objective message. In 2013 Swartz began to suspend sculptural forms of paint within geometric prisms of hand cast acrylic glass. This solid and clear medium provided the ultimate means of abrading the distinction between two and three dimensional painting. These multi faceted works emphasize the congruity between presence and space. There is no single or immediate way to experience each piece, every angle exposes a different refraction of the brushstrokes contained within the sculpture. This enables the appearance of movement within the work as the viewer’s vantage point moves. Selectively affecting the surface clarity creates windows and apertures, offering select insight to the internal elements as they are concealed and revealed. Swartz continually creates large scale Oil paintings, using the phenomenon generated within the sculptural works as inspiration and reference.