October 15, 2009

Painter Amy Swartele presents lecture, workshops

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The School of Art and Design at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will host painter Amy Swartele for a three days of workshops with art students.

Swartele also will present a lecture free and open to the public beginning at 7 p.m. on Oct. 22. The lecture is set for Room 101 in Lawson Hall on Lincoln Drive. She will be on campus Oct. 21-23.

Swartele is a Belgian and American painter specializing in the surrealistic and expressionist traditions. She spent her childhood in Belgium, Holland and England and pursued advanced education in the United States at Wesleyan University and the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Swartele’s work is in permanent collections in India and France and at the Gibson Gallery Museum of the State University of New York at Potsdam. This year, she held a solo exhibition at galleries in Montreal, Canada, and Belgium, and was part of group exhibition in Pennsylvania and British Columbia, Canada. Other solo exhibitions include the Macé Galerie in Paris, France, the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in New York and Castellani Art Museum in New York. Other group exhibitions include the Palau de Vidre in Lleida, Spain, the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, Italy, and the Touchstone Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Swartele earned both a MARK Grant and a Strategic Stipend from the New York Foundation for the Arts this year. Other awards include an Artist in Residence Award from the Global Arts Village in New Delhi, India, and a People’s Choice Award from a Regional Juried Exhibition at the Gibson Gallery in Potsdam, N.Y. as well as other awards from juried art exhibitions.

She is an associate professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam, where she serves ad head of the painting program.

The Fine Arts Activity Fee contributes to the School of Art and Design Visiting Artist Program.