Kurt has been making art ever since he could hold a crayon. In high school hehelped design the yearbooks and in Grade 12 won the Art Award purchase whichstill hangs in the principal’s office. He attended the Ontario College of Art andworked as a gallery assistant at the Niagara Artists Centre before movingpermanently to Toronto and the vibrant Queen West scene in 1984. Five yearslater he quit his part time job at The Cameron and has sustained a diverse andcreative independent career ever since. Colorful club murals and street postersled to art directing award winning videos for rapper Maestro Fresh Wes, creatinghand-painted wardrobe for jazz group The Shuffle Demons, set design for JoniMitchell’s live broadcast on MuchMusic, designing the shopping bag for Sam theRecord Man, illustrating covers for Coach House Press titles by Margaret Atwoodand Michael Ondaatje, and animating music videos for Bruce Cockburn and BuffySainte-Marie. He considered these commercial projects opportunities tocontribute to the media landscape without compromising his aesthetic. This workalso allowed him to avoid having a straight job while maintaining a fine art practice.Currently his focus is painting in his downtown studio and he is represented in thepermanent collection of the Canada Council Art Bank.Swinghammer is also a musician and has released a dozen albums of originalmaterial, co-written an entire album with Ron Sexsmith, composed a piece forcontemporary dance choreographer Peggy Baker, appears on over 100 CDs byartists including Ani DiFranco and Great Big Sea, was the first artist in residenceat the National Music Centre in Calgary, and won Local Guitarist of the Year fromthe NOW Magazine Reader’s Poll. He has composed extensively for film and TVincluding episodes of CBC’s The Nature of Things and the theme music forMarketplace.
About the art work
"Over the years I’ve explored a wide variety of styles, mediums and techniques while balancing commercial and personal fine art projects. My current work employs a labour intensive approach of applying thin, flat layers of liquid acrylic and creating a sense of spatial depth through the use of carefully mixed colours. The average painting takes me 7 to 8 days to complete. I utilize masking techniques that connect to the aesthetic of hard edge abstraction and graphic design popular in the 60’s - an early inspiration for me. As a youngster I was also very moved by the work of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, and I reflect similar subject matter with a modern sensibility."
