Martin Swift | Vacancy

MARTIN SWIFT VACANCY



VACANCY

Robbie and Pat (Detail)
12” X 12”
oil on canvas
2013

Statement:

As with the accompanying work that explores masculinity and
identity, the origins of this series stem from my upbringing.
I grew up in a household without television. My twin sister and
I were blessed with one of the last truly unplugged childhoods.
Our youthful curiosity was satisfied by what lay immediately
outside our front door. As a result I was hopelessly ill equipped
to perform in a world ruled by popular culture and nationalized
social agenda. When I entered my early teens, the minutiae and
nuance of my outlook was confronted by a blunt need to recall
names and events utterly foreign and hopelessly mundane.
I was unimpressed by this clarion call to conformity and
resisted its influence until it occurred to me that what repulsed
me was not the substance of our culture, but my utter lack
of objective context. My most formative years were not tied
to any specific cross section of media, thus freeing me to
explore where it all came from. I have become an obnoxiously
specific yet laboriously entropic anthropologist of sorts. The
work presented in Vacancy is a sample of my investigations of
gender, sexuality, childhood uncertainty, science fiction, history,
and pop culture.

Wagah
14” X 11”
ink on paper
2012

Robbie and Pat
12” X 12”
oil on canvas
2013

Decay
8.5” X 11”
ink on paper
2013

Bessie Stringfield
5” X 7”
ink on board
2013

Ol’ Pat
5” X 7”
ink on board
2013

Bellum Sacrum
24” X 18”
oil on linen
2013

Bellum Sacrum (Detail)
24” X 18”
oil on linen
2013

Bad Brother
8” X 7.5”
ink on board
2014

Bad Brother (Detail)
8” X 7.5”
ink on board
2014

Tombeau
19” X 17”
oil on linen
2014

Cassius
8” X 10”
ink on board
2015

Lunge
14” X 11”
ink on board
2015

Footwork
14” X 11”
ink on board
2015

Butterfly
5” X 7”
ink on board
2015

Lunch Time
9” X 12”
oil on canvas
2015

Black Shadow
8” X 10”
ink on board
2015

Cal Rodgers (Detail)
10” X 8”
ink on board
2017

Acknowledgments

The York College Galleries are proud to present this exhibition by the artist Martin Swift.
We are grateful for the support of the York College of Pennsylvania administration, faculty,
and staff, including Dr. Pamela Gunter-Smith, President of York College; Dr. Laura Niesen de
Abruña, Provost; Dr. Dominic DelliCarpini, Dean of the Center for Community Engagement;
Dr. Kenneth Martin, Dean of Campus Operations; Dr. Ken Osowski, Chair of Communication
and the Arts; Professor Ry Fryar, Art Division Coordinator; Nick McConnell, Director of
Operations for the Center for Community Engagement; and Allison Altland, Administrative
Assistant of Communication and the Arts.

Thank you to Kate Warren for photographing the work in these exhibitions for this catalogue.
Thank you to Mariah Hertz for taking on the design of this catalogue on incredibly short notice.
Thank you to Claire Miller for taking on a multitude of tasks from varnishing the paintings to
helping with installation. Thank you also to Ivy Rodgers for assisting in the installation of the
exhibition. A special thanks also to Scott Bitzer, who was our master problem-solver and last
minute installation savior.

Finally, a very special thank you to artist Martin Swift and guest curator Matthew Apol for
selecting such a gorgeous and poignant body of work to share with the York community.
It is an honor to exhibit this beautiful work and we are grateful for the opportunity.

– Matthew Clay-Robison, Gallery Director, York College of Pennsylvania

Catalogue Photography: Kate Warren
Catalogue Design: Mariah Hertz
Exhibition Currator: Matthew Apol

Marketview Arts
37 W Philadelphia Street, York, PA 17401
galleries.ycp.edu

Pauper
9” X 5”
ink on paper
2016

Cal Rodgers
10” X 8”
ink on board
2017

Rory (Detail)
48” X 60”
oil on canvas
2017

Rory
48” X 60”
oil on canvas
2017

Rory Study 2
10” X 10”
oil on linen
2016

Rory Study 1
10” X 10”
oil on linen
2016

Rory is by no means one of my oldest friends, but I have
witnessed him change more profoundly in a few short years
than most of the friends I have known over my lifetime. During
the period of time I have been working with Rory he got
engaged, married, and became a father. Watching someone
closely as they fundamentally alter their priorities is both
inspiring and intimidating. Overlooking a few tattoos there
was no physical evolution, but he underwent a painfully subtle
temperamental transformation. Most artists admit that their
work is inherently autobiographical. We use the self as a vessel
with which to explore the world around us. Attempting to
contextualize Rorie’s metamorphosis through my work has been
deeply moving. Trying to paint a friend whose base identity
acutely shifts every month or so is maddening.

Rory
16” X 16”
oil on canvas
2017

John
10” X 20”
oil on linen
2017

John
30” X 48”
oil on linen
2014

Sheldon
24” X 24”
oil on canvas
2017  

Sheldon
30” X 36”
oil on linen
2014

Billy
30” X 42”
oil on canvas
2014

Will (Detail)
48” X 60”
oil on canvas
2014

Will and I became close in high school. From the beginning
of our relationship he was something of an enigma to me. His
folks, who expressed little interest in him, were both remarried
and he had been ejected from several schools including a
military reform academy. He displayed the typical bellicose
affect of a dissociated young man. We met in gym class and the
cornerstone of our relationship was mutual curiosity as we both
attempted to navigate a rather toxic and competitive masculine
environment. It took several years for me to realize that he was
the first person I had ever met whose aspect was cemented in
the conviction that he was truly unwanted.

Like so many, his misanthropic behavior was merely a shield
that I was fortunate enough to see him dismantle through
the subsequent years. Will’s grace is still fleeting, but his
indifference is now strictly academic.

Will
48” X 60”
oil on canvas
2014

Alex
30” X 28.5”
oil on linen
2017

Dave
48” X 84”
oil on canvas
2013 - 2017

Oscar is perhaps the most self aware of my muses. He was a
graduate student while I attended Carnegie Mellon for my
undergrad and we quickly bonded over a need to analyze
masculinity through our respective practices. I was intrigued by
his complete lack of subtlety. His art explores the unfettered
chaos of boys at play. The first piece of his I remember seeing
was five foot T shaped vertical pole protruding from the
mechanism from a repurposed “kiddyride” and equipped with
a counter weighted chainsaw at its apex. The viewer was meant
to bend down and press a button at the base of the structure,
at which point the chainsaw would turn on and cheekily begin
flailing about.

Immediately upon moving from Holland to Pittsburgh for
school, he became obsessed with rural, working class American
culture. He bought a pickup truck in order to affix a pair of
bullhorns to the grill. He got a couple guns, fell in love with
bowling, and attended demolition derbies with no hint of irony.
To the uninitiated he was a six foot four inch, gruff, smelly,
slab of american meat, but out of costume he was a tender
and altruistic Dutch boy who wore sweaters embroidered with
reindeer. This display was not merely a performance, but his
way of learning and exploring this strange and enigmatic culture
of ours. It was this ernest duality that intrigued me more than
anything.

He was simply playing a part, but he certainly found his
“holy trinity of American masculinity; bowling, balls, and
blowing smoke”.

Oscar
48” X 84”
oil on canvas
2013

Josh
48” X 84”
oil on canvas
2013 - 2017

Oscar (Detail)
48” X 84”
oil on canvas
2013

Luca
48” X 84”
oil on canvas
2012

Tyler (Detail)
48” X 84”
oil on canvas
2012

Work:

Tyler is one of my oldest friends and I have watched him move
through life with exhausting bombast. For many years we were
inseparable, yet I was always in awe and slightly intimidated by
the energy he reserved for each of his countless acquaintances.
He could build a community of friends on nothing more than
his charm and sense of humor. He was the life of the party.
A relentless prankster whose light could never dim.

A year or two before I began this body of work, I was unsettled
when I learned that it had all been an act to insulate himself
from his own social anxiety. When I think about my fondest
memories of our friendship they always seemed to take place
in the space between scenes. Moments just before coming to
rest. They were brief and wonderfully vulnerable respites when
we were both simply there. Seeking this precious space has
become the compositional foundation of this body of work.

This piece is my first figurative painting the seed from which
this series grows. Tyler has since found that social anxiety is
on par for most young men and what was once an act has
bloomed into a genuine and wonderful personality. I am
eagerly looking forward to working with him again.

Tyler
48” X 84”
oil on canvas
2012

Martin Swift