Banner artwork: Carolyn Swiszcz, Patio 3, 26" X 40", acrylic and rubber stamp on paper, 2008. This is one of several new paintings by the artist documenting landmark sites throughout the region, a series which will premiere in a solo show at Franklin Artworks opening this week.
(Image cropped and reproduced for access+ENGAGE with permission of the artist)
About her work, Swiszcz writes: "I look for inspiration in places that require a second (or possibly third and fourth) look. Signs, patterns, and architecture are of particular interest. There's something about collecting doomed businesses and buildings and recycling them into painting fodder that makes me especially satisfied."
About the artist: Carolyn Swiszcz was born and raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts, but she came to Minnesota to attend the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where she earned a BFA in 1994. In the late '90s she spent three winters in Miami on a fellowship from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. The look of Miami Beach was changing from faded 1950s apartment buildings to glimmering new condo towers; these surroundings are what originally inspired Swiszcz to take an 
interest in buildings that seemed slated for destruction. Swiszcz’s work has also appeared at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Drawing Center, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and M.Y. Art Prospects Gallery in New York. She lives in West Saint Paul, a neighborhood which she and her husband Wilson celebrated with a song and video that has had over 120,000 clicks on You Tube.
Carolyn Swiszcz's new solo exhibition will open at Franklin Artworks' Main Gallery in Minneapolis on January 9 with a reception from 6-8 pm, and the show will be on view through February 21. (In the Project Space adjacent to the Main Gallery you can see photographic collages by New York artist Javier Piñón.)
You can see many more examples of Swiszcz's work on her website and, of course, on her mnartists.org webpages.
Credits: Photo of the artist by Wilson Webb; image at left, Walker Art Center, 40" x 60", acrylic and rubber stamp on canvas, 2008; image at right, 3M Headquarters, 35" x 60", acrylic and rubber stamp on canvas, 2008.