Red Shift Rocker

Richard Swanson

Richard Swanson:

Red Shift Rocker

Scissors and paper are the design tools for my “cutout” series that includes Red Shift Rocker. In a spontaneous process of folding and expanding shapes cut from paper I prospect for forms that I find exciting enough to scale up in metal. Cut loose from its moorings this sculpture literally rocks!

Richard maintains two studios in Helena, Montana, where he first arrived as an Archie Bray Foundation resident in 1974. One studio, for figurative and
functional works in clay, he shares with Penny Price Swanson. In the other he creates large scale abstract sculpture in diverse media. Awards include Individual Artist Fellowships from the Montana Arts Council and Art Matters Foundation in New York. His ceramic work is featured in many collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and in many books and articles, including the LACMA publication Color and Fire, Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000. His large scale, site-specific sculptures have permanent homes in
several states on the campuses of museums and universities. His interests include collaborations with choreographers in museum, stage and landscape settings.
The artist says: “Whether I am working abstractly or figuratively, on an intimate scale or monumental, I am constantly combining and simplifying to enhance the way forms relate and flow together. The interaction of rhythm and balance is a defining aesthetic for all my work.”