Brooklyn-based artist Elizabeth Schwaiger paints opulent ruins where time takes on strange dimensions. Palatial rooms are cast in hues of purples, blues, and reds. Their walls are cluttered with paintings, some strewn across the floors. Houseplants overgrow their pots with abandon, seemingly flourishing in the absence of human life. Schwaiger debuted these works in her inaugural solo debut “Now & Now & Now” at Nicola Vassell Gallery in New York earlier this year.
The artist, who was born in Texas in 1985, has been mining this lushly apocalyptic imagery for several years. Having earned an M.F.A. at the Glasgow School of Art in 2011, Schwaiger’s works, until recently, have been more broadly exhibited in the U.K. including exhibitions at the Walker Gallery National Museum in Liverpool, the Macintosh Museum in Glasgow, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Last year, her work gained new exposure with a solo presentation at the Independent Art Fair presented by Nicola Vassell, and this January, the gallery announced its exclusive representation of her work. Schwaiger says her most recent works are her most introspective yet and are deeply informed by her experiences as a new mother.
“I made these works in the months after I gave birth to my daughter,” she said, during a recent conversation. “A baby’s schedule makes time very cyclical—she needed to eat, sleep, and back again. It was this reigning in of time.”
