We are pleased to feature a selection of original paintings by illustrator, author, and publisher Leanne Shapton. Taken from Shapton's memoir Swimming Studies, this exhibition of unique ink paintings coincides with the book's release in paperback by Blue Rider Press.
Swimming Studies is an autobiographical piece focusing on Shapton’s own experience as a competitive swimmer. Beginning her journey training for the Olympic trials as an adolescent, Shapton explores the shift into adulthood as art became her primary focus. Using simple candid text that we’ve seen in much of Shapton’s writing, paired with abstract gestural imagery of pools, bodies of water, and swimmers, the author and artist contemplates the impact of her childhood and how it informs her work to this day. A question familiar to many of us, how do we let go of an integral part of our life that no longer fits, while holding onto its influence and allowing it to shape a body of work? Writer Sheila Heti describes Swimming Studies as “what it’s like to be haunted by the person one used to be, and the search for how that person exists in the present … we see how the discipline of being an athlete can condition one’s ways of making art, and how the patience necessary to make art teaches other types of patience.”
Leanne Shapton, b. 1973, is a Canadian artist and writer. She lives and works in New York City
May 24th 2016