Amy Swartz
Amy Swartz is a Toronto-based visual artist. She creates highly detailed and meticulously crafted collections that combine both natural and artificial materials in sculpture, installation and drawing. Her work explores the idea of obsession — not only in the practice of art, but also in humanity’s perceived control over nature, life, and death. As R.M. Vaughan wrote, “Swartz makes even the tiniest deaths meaningful (and, yes, morbidly funny).”
"...in Swartz's savage realm, no moral compass keeps cruel behaviour in check, and David is often conquered by Goliath. This mirrors nature, of course, leaving us to simply bear witness to viciousness that bears an eerie resemblance to our own."
- Erin Finley, Onomatopoeic Violence: Pest at the Redpath Museum
Selected Exhibitions
Marking Schemes, The Drawing Board Red Head Gallery 2022
Pest Control, Orillia Museum of Art & History, 2019 (2 person)
Ontario Wide Biennale, Thames Art Gallery, Toronto Ontario 2017 (group)
Back to the Drawing Board, Loop Gallery, Toronto ON 2017 (group)
Capacity 3 Gallery, Boarding House Arts, Dublin Street, Guelph ON 2017 (solo)
Other Worlds Lieutenant Governor’s Suite, Queen’s Park Toronto ON 2016 (group)
Down the Rabbit Hole Robert Langen Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo ON 2017 (solo)
Art Attack, Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto ON 2016 (Art Auction)
Pest at the Redpath Museum McGill University, Montreal QC 2016 (solo)
Pest, ARTSPACE, Peterborough ON 2015 (solo)
Precious Little, Grimsby Art Gallery, Grimsby ON 2014 (group)
Pest, Definitely Superior Art Gallery, Thunder Bay ON 2014 (solo)
Proximity to Animals, Glass Box Gallery, OCAD University Toronto ON 2014 (group)
There and Back Again, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto ON 2014 (group)
Pest, Cambridge Galleries, Preston Gallery, Cambridge ON 2013 (solo)
Pest, Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory, Cambridge ON 2013 (solo)
Pest, Durham Art Gallery, Durham ON 2013 (2 person)
Pest, Angell Gallery, East Gallery Toronto, ON. 2011 (solo)
Selected Publications
Canadian Art Teacher Magazine, Issue 18.2 Special Insert, The Drawing Board, produced by Pam Patterson and April Mandrona 2022
The Art of Motherhood The Drawing Board, Rachel Grad OCAD University 2022
Akimbo Hit List, Back to the Drawing Board 2017
Other Worlds, Catalog Lieutenant Governor’s Suite, Queen’s Park Toronto 2016
Tiffany Lafleur, Sword-wielding insects run amok at the Redpath, The Concordian, Montreal 2016
Erin Finley, Onomatopoeic Violence: Pest at the Redpath Museum 2016
Pest at ARTSPACE Gallery, Canadian Art Magazine Must-Sees This Week 2015
Micheal Fazackerley, Pest by Amy Swartz and Mechanisms for Correcting the Past
by Kristine McDaonald at ARTSPACE, Kawartha NOW 2015
Regina Haggo, Precious Little - start small think big Hamilton Spectator Arts Review 2014
Pest at Gallery 101 Ottawa, Candian Art Must Sees This Week 2014
Canadian Art Junkie, blog, 2013.
Lee Jones editor, Art & Science Journal, blog, Ottawa Ontario, 2012
Review by Murray Whyte: 10 Art Installations that got it right, Toronto Star 2011. PDF
Murray Whyte, Art is Where You Find the Dead Bodies, Toronto Star 2011. PDF
R.M. Vaughn, In Other Venues Globe and Mail (Saturday Edition) 2011.
Photo Essay Snap Shot, Grid Magazine 2011.
Fran Schechter, This Week's Must See Art, Now Magazine Online 2011
Ben Kline, Angell Gallery 2011
Links
The Drawing Board:
Sandy Nicholson Photography
Andrea Hamlin Photography
OCAD University
Angell Gallery
Cambridge Galleries
Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory
Durham Art Gallery
Toronto Entomologist Association
Thank you
For Insect Donations, thank you to:
Alan Macnaughton, Glenn Richardson - Toronto Entomologists' Association / Tim Cooey - Ontario Science Center / Professor Miriam Richards - Brock University / Dushana Bondy - Abell Pest Control / Maddy Hudson - Toronto Bee Keeper / Butterflies and Roses / Adrienne Brewster - Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory / Howard Public School Students and Parents / Toronto School of Art Students / OCAD University Students and faculty/ Peterson-Badali Family / Parkdale/High Park friends and neighbours / Andrea Hamlin / Pam Patterson / Stephanie Cormier / Donald Davis.
Special thank you to:
Andrew Peterson (cabinet maker for Hypo and Pest) Sandy Nicholson Photography (Photographer for Pest details and Exhibition at Angell Gallery), Andrea Hamlin Photography
© 2023 Amy Swartz. All rights reserved.
Full C.V. please contact Amy Swartz
Selected Awards
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant: Mercer Union 2023
Canada Council for The Arts, Explore and Create Grant, The Drawing Board 2021
Canada Council Project/Creation Grant, Drawing Board 2020
Canada Council Covid Support Grant. Drawing Board 2020
Canada Council Project/Creation Grant, Drawing Board 2018
Ontario Arts Council, Visual Artist Grant 2009
Ontario Arts Council, Visual Artist Grant 2012
Ontario Arts Council, Visual Artist Grant 2016
BAiR, Banff Centre for the Arts 2014
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant 2017 (Recommender: Art Museum, University of Toronto)
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant 2015 (Recommender: Mercer Union)
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant 2015 (Recommender: YYZ)
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant 2012 (Recommender: Power Plant)
Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant 2012 (Recommender: Burlington Art Gallery)
Toronto Arts Council, Visual Artist Grant 2010
Education
M.F.A.York University, Toronto, ON
B.F.A. Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver BC
B.A. Cultural Studies, Trent University, Peterborough ON
Assistant Professor, TS Faculty of Art, OCAD University
