Phantom Nightlight
October 2, 2017
“Phantom Nightlight,” an exhibit of paintings by Spartanburg artist Jonathan Swift, will will be featured at West Main Artists Co-op (WMAC) Oct. 19-Nov. 11, asking the question: “Do we see better in the dark?”
A free opening reception will be held during the city’s monthly ArtWalk, Thursday Oct. 19, 5-9 p.m. The exhibit will be open for free public viewing Tuesday–Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
In “Phantom Nightlight” Swift explores how the night alters perception. His oil and water paintings of looming buildings, restless figures, and landscapes are abstract, impressionistic, and often otherworldly. “One night when I couldn’t sleep, I started wandering around the house and yard taking random pictures with my phone,” he said. “It takes terrible pictures in low light, but one of the bad images caught my attention. Everything was black except for the glow of two street lights. One was a warm orange, and the other had a cool green light. Everything else was a silhouette. There was something sort of magical about it. It was still a bad photograph, but I knew I could make a good painting from it. This series started from that image.
“Night removes most of the detail from our view,” he continued. “We’re left with fragments and shadows. As we unconsciously try to make sense of what we see, we end up projecting our inner landscape onto the obscured outer landscape.”
“Phantom Nightlight” invites the viewer to experience this merger of exterior and interior worlds. “If we pay attention, what we see can show us our hidden selves,” he said. “We can create imaginary monsters under the bed, or we can conjure a phantom nightlight to chase them away.”
Born to American parents in the rainforest region of Peru, Swift was raised in a small religious community that worked with native South American tribal groups. Caught at the chaotic convergence of multiple cultural rivers, he grew a simultaneous sense of love for — and alienation from — each of these competing streams of influence. This tension drives a creative aesthetic that embraces chaos, while searching for the hidden layers of order beneath it, he said. Swift has studied music, musical instrument making, digital art, and graphic design. In recent years, he’s returned to his early love of painting and drawing, focusing on traditional fine art media, including ink on panel, oil painting, and graphite drawing. More of his work can be seen on Facebook.
West Main Artists Co-op is located at 578 West Main Street in Spartanburg. For more information visit WestMainArtists.org or on Facebook.
