Opening Reception: Tuesday, October 8th, 6-8 pm
Kairos: a propitious moment for decision or action.
In Elizabeth Schwaiger’s exhibition Kairos, the artist addresses apocalyptic anxieties through the skilled painting of palpable absence. The work captures a singular, quiet tension, like that found in documentation of deserted homes and schools in Chernobyl or Fukushima. De-peopled space is at the root of much of Kairos. Frosted presents a desolate dining room set for a banquet, and Enough Time shows a vacant artist’s studio with potentially abandoned paintings in progress. In Light as a Feather and Red Cover, the only two paintings in Kairos that include figures, faces dissolve into swirls of frenzied mark . Visages are wiped away, and only piercing gazes remain clearly defined. Viewing these paintings is akin to piecing together a faded memory — a struggle to assemble hazy details into a whole. Schwaiger’s ominous work captures what could be scenes from daily life, but subtle and uncanny details indicate they could just as likely be images of the static aftermath that follows frantic departure.
Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem Dear Darkening Ground is a constant influence and inspiration for Schwaiger. Echoing Rilke’s words, Schwaiger’s paintings conjure the low-simmering fear and recognition that all humanity has known, the great and the terrible alike, are all quite tenuous — but more importantly, that the moment, the Kairos for forestalling the unthinkable, may well be slipping past.
Curated by Anne Patsch
Elizabeth Schwaiger is a Brooklyn based artist. She received a Master’s degree from the Glasgow School of Art in 2011. Her work is collected in North America and in Europe and has been exhibited in prominent museums in Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Cardiff, and Texas. Recent projects include Expo Chicago with Jane Lombard Gallery, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency Program (at which she began paintings exhibited in Kairos), and a solo exhibition at Canopy in Austin. Her work and words have been featured in The Caitlin Guide, fields magazine, Floorr, Newfound, Conflict of Interest, Sightlines, The Austin Chronicle, among other publications.