Our artists

Susan Swartz

Susan Swartz explores landscapes through potent colors and richly layered abstract paintings. With her evocation of coastal splendor and mountain drama, Swartz follows in the tradition of the great German painters, 19th century Romantic sage Caspar David Friedrich, and 20th century icon Gerhard Richter. She is inspired by the intersection of art, nature and spirituality.

 

Susan Swartz's distinctive style has been recognized with solo exhibitions at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA)Museum in Beijing, China; the Manetti Shrem Museum in Davis, California; the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, Hungary ; the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, Germany; the Kollegienkirche in Salzburg, Austria; the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C; the Springville Museum of Art in Springville, Utah; and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her works are in the public and private collections including the Agnes Gund Collection, the permanent collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts; the Springville Museum of Art; the Utah Museum of Fine Arts; the International Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; and the CAFA Museum in Beijing, China. 

Susan Swartz

Swartz's work is also on display inside the United States Embassies in New Zealand, Hungary, and China via the Art in Embassies program. In 2005, Swartz was published in the Gibbs Smith collectors book Painters of the Wasatch Mountains along side Wasatch Mountain School artists Maynard Dixon, Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran. The same year she was honored by the Harvard Divinity School for a career that continues to blend artistry and faith. Swartz was the Official Olympic Environmental Artist for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The underlying energy and tension to Swartz's work hints of her complex relationship with the natural world. Her decade long struggle with mercury poisoning and Lyme disease transformed her as an artist and as a citizen. She now works from a place of impassioned reverence for the earth, and of fierce determination to inform and educate.

Partnering with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Louie Psihoyos and Dr. Jane Goodall on a number of their environmental campaigns, Swartz also supports the vision and production of documentary films that seek to shed light on social and environmental injustice. Films touched by her include Academy Award-winners and nominees, as well as Sundance Film Festival award winners. Swartz serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Dean's Council of the Harvard Divinity School and is the co-founder of charity-based The Christian Center of Park City. She is on the board of the Utah Film Center and a founding member of the documentary film organization Impact Partners. Swartz paints from studios in Park City, Utah and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

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