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.
Self-preservation, home, community and sense of belonging have been the backdrop to the most turbulent events in my life. 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 widely collected both nationally and internationally.
Statement
The Flemish Renaissance, Mughal portraiture, Impressionism, Classicism and Cubism are references for my work. Each painting unfolds from observation, and an intuitive narrative. However, the style itself is not a conscious choice in my practice; it is the result.
A painting seldom begins and ends on one panel. A vision begins in the representational form but the moment it shifts towards 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 similar to the roots of a plant. Thus, most representational paintings become triptychs or diptychs containing an abstract companion piece. One aspect always underscores and engages the other with an ultimate aim to provide an overall indulgent reprieve from the rituals of daily life.
