biography
Gary Swimmer lives in Tucson, Arizona. He makes paintings, drawings and now, sculpture. His work is in private collections in the United States, Canada and several countries in Western Europe. He has drawn and painted his entire life, but did not professionally pursue art until his late twenties. Before that, he stumbled around in the sciences, avoiding the inevitable, that is to say, the overwhelming urge to make art fulltime. Some people take longer to engage their dreams fully. Finally, leaving the past behind, he pursued an MFA, and got a job working and teaching at Pratt Institute for a number of years. He states that being a part of the fabulous community at Pratt, living in NYC and having a small, devoted group of collectors who supported his artwork, made for a great combination of factors that inspired and stimulated the development of his artwork for the years spent in New York.
The only child of Holocaust survivors, his family left Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution and after a year in Israel, immigrated to the United States. He was four years old. The family lived in various parts of southern New York State, starting with the Bronx, then Peekskill, Valhalla, Tarrytown, and finally settling in White Plains as his parents’ American dream evolved.
He spent much of his time while in high school, then during college in Baltimore and graduate studies, in Belgium, making art and visiting the galleries and museums near all the places he lived and traveled. Nevertheless, he managed to get a degree in biology, do a bit of medical research and ever more reluctantly, struggle through a number of years of medical school, before finally facing the fact that art was the only authentic path to follow.
In 1993, he married his wife, Karen and they had a son, Isaac, in 1995. They abruptly moved to Tucson in 1996 to support ailing parents. There were many gallery shows, collectors, teaching and a few pieces that found their way into local museums in Southern Arizona. Those early years in Tucson were enriched and there was a real sense of adventure in the oddly beautiful, Sonoran desert. Swimmer was very active both as an artist and as part of the relatively vibrant local arts community for several years. As he left New York, a number of older colleagues expressed their concerns. They warned that he already had two strikes against him as an artist, given that he had wed and then had a child. They felt that leaving New York for what they not so generously referred to as, “The Hinterlands,” would be the third and fatal blow to pursuing his work and advancing an art career. Looking back, there have been many very productive periods in the last 28 years, but there have also been times, especially in Tucson, after 2001, when art got derailed by life, and it seemed for some time that those artists may have been right. There were several very tough years in which everything was out of balance and this produced less devotion to the art making process and some inconsistent work. Finally finding a renewed strength and commitment and both his state of mind and his work began to flourish, although this period has, until very recently, been mostly in seclusion. Very little of the work leading up to this new undertaking has been seen by anyone.
In 2012, with the establishment of this new website, Swimmer is launching the project he has been working on for so long and planning for much longer. He has returned to the most essential form of work that he can imagine, namely drawing. It is where he started. It is the root medium for him and for most everyone. He is currently fabricating his new works in steel, at a much larger scale than the preparatory drawings themselves. The first pieces can be seen on this website. The project is filled with great promise. The many hundreds of drawings that have been made in these last years, specifically with this project in mind, will gradually be adapted to fabrication in metal. He states, “I see many years of inspiration in this particular direction, and there is not enough time in the day to chase down all my ideas. It is a great place to find one’
The only child of Holocaust survivors, his family left Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution and after a year in Israel, immigrated to the United States. He was four years old. The family lived in various parts of southern New York State, starting with the Bronx, then Peekskill, Valhalla, Tarrytown, and finally settling in White Plains as his parents’ American dream evolved.
He spent much of his time while in high school, then during college in Baltimore and graduate studies, in Belgium, making art and visiting the galleries and museums near all the places he lived and traveled. Nevertheless, he managed to get a degree in biology, do a bit of medical research and ever more reluctantly, struggle through a number of years of medical school, before finally facing the fact that art was the only authentic path to follow.
In 1993, he married his wife, Karen and they had a son, Isaac, in 1995. They abruptly moved to Tucson in 1996 to support ailing parents. There were many gallery shows, collectors, teaching and a few pieces that found their way into local museums in Southern Arizona. Those early years in Tucson were enriched and there was a real sense of adventure in the oddly beautiful, Sonoran desert. Swimmer was very active both as an artist and as part of the relatively vibrant local arts community for several years. As he left New York, a number of older colleagues expressed their concerns. They warned that he already had two strikes against him as an artist, given that he had wed and then had a child. They felt that leaving New York for what they not so generously referred to as, “The Hinterlands,” would be the third and fatal blow to pursuing his work and advancing an art career. Looking back, there have been many very productive periods in the last 28 years, but there have also been times, especially in Tucson, after 2001, when art got derailed by life, and it seemed for some time that those artists may have been right. There were several very tough years in which everything was out of balance and this produced less devotion to the art making process and some inconsistent work. Finally finding a renewed strength and commitment and both his state of mind and his work began to flourish, although this period has, until very recently, been mostly in seclusion. Very little of the work leading up to this new undertaking has been seen by anyone.
In 2012, with the establishment of this new website, Swimmer is launching the project he has been working on for so long and planning for much longer. He has returned to the most essential form of work that he can imagine, namely drawing. It is where he started. It is the root medium for him and for most everyone. He is currently fabricating his new works in steel, at a much larger scale than the preparatory drawings themselves. The first pieces can be seen on this website. The project is filled with great promise. The many hundreds of drawings that have been made in these last years, specifically with this project in mind, will gradually be adapted to fabrication in metal. He states, “I see many years of inspiration in this particular direction, and there is not enough time in the day to chase down all my ideas. It is a great place to find one’