Swain Hoogervorst (born 1988) is based in Cape Town. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts from Vega (2010). He was selected as a top 100 finalist in the L’atelier Competition in both 2013 and 2015. Residencies include Schildersweek in the Netherlands (2013), Arteles Creative Center in Finland (2015), Mas des Graviers in France (2019) and most recently, Cité internationale des arts in Paris (2022). Hoogervorst has participated in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally. His first solo exhibition Inside Out was at the AVA Gallery in Cape Town (2014). Searching Eudaimonia (2017) marked his solo debut at the Everard Read Gallery in Cape Town, followed by In Between Spaces (2020), and most recently Time is a Long Thin Hand (2022) at Everard Read Franschhoek. Hoogervorst is represented by Everard Read Gallery in South Africa and London in the UK. His work can be found in private collections (in the UAE, US, UK, Brazil, France, Australia, Germany and Belgium) and public collections, including the Spier Arts Trust in South Africa. Hoogervorst lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
Artist Statement
‘My work always starts with a question (always the same): What is painting, now?
In 2020 I created a body of work that felt like a turning point in my process. My most recent show, Time is a Long Thin Hand (2022) aims to build on that new direction. My paintings find their foundation in the relationship between different marks of paint. In how two unlikely painted gestures can sit next to one another, and unexpectedly animate a surprise outcome.
Each of my works become an exercise in mark-making. Drawing on source imagery from my everyday life, whether it’s going for a run, living abroad, or the view from my studio window – everything becomes fodder for my fascination with painting.
To me painting is an accretion of time pursued in isolation; an unraveling of one’s own lived experience, and mortality. In my paintings I juxtapose landscapes and urban scenes with interiors and close-ups of ordinary house plants and bouquets, which have become a recurring fixation, perhaps because they too live and die.
As opposed to starting with a finished image clearly in mind, my paintings are a slow accumulation of painted memories and moments layered on top of one another – until I land on something fleeting that reveals itself.’