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Artist Bio
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mixed media

Semiprecious

September 29, 2004 - August 31, 2005

MetroTech Center, Brooklyn

Public Art Fund is proud to present a new exhibition of contemporary art at MetroTech Center. Semiprecious features works by Carolyn Castaño, Jennifer Cohen, Luis Gispert, Kirsten Hassenfeld, and Marc Swanson, each of whom use visually dazzling materials to explore themes of artifice, seduction, desire, exoticism, and fantasy. With a critical eye toward the precious object, these artists explore the elements of melancholy, romance, and sensuality that lie beneath the sparkling surface.

Marc Swanson's Fits and Starts is a sculpture of a life-size deer, entirely encrusted in rhinestone crystals. The deer is portrayed mid-leap, its hind legs in the air and its head turned, as if glancing back at a person or another animal in pursuit. Swanson, who views the sculpture in terms of fantasy and desire, notes that the deer is an alluring and elusive creature that is simultaneously darting away and frozen in time. The graceful sculpture suggests an unattainable object of adoration, trying to flee those who wish to approach. Swanson has made several related deer-head sculptures, which he calls his "surrogates," encrusting the conventional hunter's trophy with dazzling rhinestones and hanging it on the wall. Swanson has developed an artistic language that seeks to merge his New Hampshire upbringing (his father was an Eagle Scout and marine) with his present day identity.

Artist Bio
Marc Swanson lives and works in Brooklyn. He uses a variety of materials--from crystals and glitter to lumber and deerskin--to make sculptures that examine renewal, personal history, mortality, and rites of passage. He received an MFA from The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and has recently solo exhibitions at Bellwether Gallery in New York and Julia Friedman Gallery in Chicago.

Sponsorship
Semiprecious at MetroTech Center is part of an ongoing program organized by the Public Art Fund and sponsored by MetroTech Commons Associates, an organization that consists of MetroTech companies Bear Stearns & Company, Forest City Ratner Companies, JPMorganChase, KeySpan, and Polytechnic University. Special thanks to Forest City Ratner Companies and First New York Management.

Location
MetroTech Center is located in Downtown Brooklyn between Jay Street and Flatbush Avenue at Myrtle Avenue. Viewing hours are dawn to dusk daily for outdoor works, Monday through Friday 8am to 6pm for Carolyn Castaño's Nightbird in One MetroTech. Subway: A, C, F to Jay Street/Borough Hall, exit at Myrtle Promenade; R to Lawrence Street.