Oil Painter | Fine Artist | Alexandra Swistak
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Bio
Alexandra Swistak, born in India, emigrated to Canada with her family and settled in British Columbia. She studied Art History and Education at the University of Victoria. Additional art studies include watercolor and ceramics in Japan, and oil painting in France.
As an immigrant woman of color, I often explore the intersection between belonging and otherness, truth and power, love and loss, security and family.
Today, she divides her time between her studios in Canada, India, France and Japan. Her work is collected internationally.
Statement
The Flemish Renaissance, Mughal portraiture, Impressionism, Classicism and Cubism are references for my work.
A painting seldom begins and ends on one panel. A quick sketch begins in the representational form but the moment it shifts into the abstract; I begin work on multiple substrates. The unpredictability of these in-between states are fully explored. The work spills organically and grows in any direction. The style itself is not a conscious choice in my practice; it is the result. Thus, most representational paintings become triptychs or diptychs containing an abstract companion piece. Both aspects provide a narrative that leads us away from the rituals of daily life.
