SECOND NATURE Troy Swangstu
Leedy-Voulkos Art Center 2012 Baltimore Ave. KC MO 64108 www.leedy-voulkos.com 816-474-1919
Troy Swangstu is a local artist currently based out of Paola, Kansas and is originally from Bettendorf, Iowa. Troy received formal training in painting at the Kansas City Art Institute. Shortly after, he continued to gain relevant experience exhibiting with other professional artists and by working closely with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. In the years since, he continues to gain recognition as a prolific exhibitor at local and regional galleries. As well as his career as an artist, Swangstu has since relocated to Paola, KS to embrace a rural life of grazing cattle. Drawing upon his passion for regenerative farming practices, Swangstu employs the imagery of his daily life, his livestock and the surrounding landscape, as the primary visual subject of these paintings. Each painting created exclusively for this exhibition features abstracted grazing animals; most notably, bulls, rams, and antelopes. When viewed collectively, the individual characteristics of each painting exudes from within their compositions. Some of the paintings dance across the massive landscape of canvas in brilliant hues of red and yellow; while others remain static, but no less active, in somber tones of monochromatic blue and grey. The quick, frenetic application of paint is done in loose blocks of colors that are juxtaposed against highly gestural strokes. These strokes create movement that trace the forms of the abstracted and segmented beasts. Imbued with a sense of freedom, these creatures are figural representations of the artist's present state of mind. By painting with such vigor and abandon, Swangstu is emphasizing his newly discovered freedom as an artist. Lest one begins to view Swangstu's paintings as pastoral archetypes, these works are not intended to be a direct reference to livestock, nor is that the artist's central narrative. Instead, the subject matter is meant to reflect and incorporate the years Swangstu has spent working with cattle. The hidden subject, as it were, is the paint and canvas. The canvas serves as the vehicle for the artist's intensive search for true authenticity, while the gestural strokes of paint emphasize his search for a new perspective. In this process of pursuing his own artistic individuality, Swangstu has successfully blended his training as an artist with his passion for sustainable farming.
July 12 - September 1, 2018
Standing Foal 2018 Oil on canvas 30” x 30” $600
Troy Swangstu | Second Nature
Leedy-Voulkos Art Center
July 12 - September 1, 2018
Troy Swangstu | Second Nature
Red Ram III 2018 Oil and oil enamel on canvas 36” x 36” $750
Leedy-Voulkos Art Center
July 12 - September 1, 2018
Troy Swangstu | Second Nature
Portrait of Black on Black on Black Bull 2018 Oil, charcoal, oil enamel on canvas .
24” x 24” $600
Leedy-Voulkos Art Center