Ian Swanson

As It Stands is pleased to present More Than Ever, Wholesome Pleasure, an exhibition of new works by New York based artist Ian Swanson.

In More Than Ever, Wholesome Pleasure, Swanson continues to explore mortality, youthful distress, and cultural temporality. Born in Detroit, MI, Swanson came of age in the city and its metropolitan area just after the millennium. There is an eerie stillness to More than ever, wholesome pleasure that is inseparable from the twin darknesses of rust belt winters and white, male post-adolescence. Swanson approaches these topics sideways, ambiently drawing on the urban landscape and personal experiences to create a body of work that teeters between the utterly mundane and the horribly fantastic.

The exhibition’s title poses a counterpoint to this perceived darkness, and to the bleak presence of Swanson’s work. More than ever, wholesome pleasure is both cynical and hopeful, a ballad and a dirge. Is pleasure itself virtuous? Or is it a mask? A frenzied smile stretched over sharpened teeth.

Ian Swanson (b.1983, Detroit, MI) received his BFA from Wayne State University and his MFA from Pratt Institute. Recent solo exhibitions include my tree stays tree at 315 Gallery, Brooklyn; cynics milk at David Shelton Gallery, Houston; our shallow psychic death at Simone DeSousa Gallery, Detroit; feels like feels at Ashes/Ashes, Los Angeles; and a native fear...a featureless protagonist at D’Agostino and Fiore, New York. Swanson currently lives in New York.