Rob Swainston
Brooklyn and Queens, NY
BIOGRAPHY 2024
Rob Swainston’s (b. 1970, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania) work is informed by a dual academic background in political science and art. He is an Associate Professor at Purchase College and co-founder and Master Printer for Prints of Darkness. Rob has been awarded numerous residencies including Skowhegan, Marie Walsh Sharpe, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Solo and group exhibitions include Marginal Utility, Philadelphia; David Krut Projects, New York; BravinLee Programs, New York; Socrates Sculpture Park, New York; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn; Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown; Print Center New York, New York; Canada Gallery, New York; Queens Museum, New York; and the Bronx Museum, New York. In 2020–21, Rob was the Ludwig Foundation Professor for Printmaking at the Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin.
BIOGRAPHY 2020
Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania and based in New York, Rob Swainston is an Assistant Professor of Art+Design in Printmaking at Purchase College and Master Printer for collaborative printshop Prints of Darkness. His art sits at the intersection of printmaking, painting, installation, and sculpture. Rob received a BA in Political Science and History from Hampshire College and an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University. With this dual focus, Rob claims: “All images are historically negotiated assemblages between humans, machines, materials, and social structures. In a society where social knowledge and power have become pure image, the print technologies historically central to this transformation can act as double-agent. Artists working in print media can be chameleons moving between image-makers and image-reproducers.” Rob has been awarded numerous residencies including Skowhegan, Marie Walsh Sharpe, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Solo and group exhibitions include Marginal Utility, David Krut Projects, Bravin Lee Programs, Socrates Sculpture Park, Smack Mellon, Munson Williams Proctor Museum of Art, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, IPCNY, Canada Gallery, Queens Museum, and the Bronx Museum.
Swainston began teaching in the printmaking program at Purchase College during 2012–13 as a part-time lecturer and in 2013–14 as a visiting assistant professor. He has been a visiting artist/critic at numerous institutions, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, SUNY New Paltz, Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University, College of St. Rose, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, California State University at Long Beach, Mason Gross School of Art at Rutgers University, and Columbia University. Rob is the Ludwig Foundation Professor for Printmaking at Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin for 2020-21.
Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston, both living and working in New York City, are a collaborative art duo exploring the intersection of historical print processes with contemporary technologies. Their projects investigate the complexities of contemporary social issues by drawing from the history of print as the medium par excellence of social movements. They have exhibited together at the Hall Art Foundation, Reading (2024); University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery, Buffalo (2024); Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin (2024); Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Arlington (2023); The Patricia and Philip Frost Art Museum, Miami (2023); Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse (2023); United States Department of State, Washington, D.C. (2023); Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton (2023); among others.
Sidhu and Swainston’s collaborative work is included in the collections of the Art Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown; Hall Collection, Reading; Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin; and the Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse.
NOTE: Exhibitions and Press starting in 2021 is work in collaboration with Zorawar Sidhu (unless otherwise noted)_
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 (upcoming), Our House is on Fire, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
2024 Doomscrolling, Hall Foundation, Reading, VT
History is Present, Anderson Gallery, University at Buffalo, NY
Zorawar Sidhu Rob Swainston: Plague and Protest, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
2022 Doomscrolling, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
NO JUSTICE! , West Strand, Kingston, NY
2021 2020 Woodcuts, Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2020 Essential Services, 601 ArtSpace, New York, NY
America is Really Hard to See, Spring / Break Art Fair, New York, NY
2019 THE BRAINS, Super Dutchess, New York, NY
American is Really Hard to See, Guttenberg Arts, Guttenberg, NJ
2016 We thought they thought what we thought, but they didn’t,¬¬ University Galleries
Illinois State, Normal, IL (curated by Barry Blinderman, catalogue)
They said what we said, only clearer. Marginal Utility, Philadelphia, PA
2015 Carry On, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
2014 Redacted (two-person show), Public/Private, Old School, Spring Break Art Fair, New
York, NY (curated by Eve Sussman and Simon Lee)
2013 Woodcut Map of Utopia from the Sept. 2013 Edition, Marginal Utility, Philadelphia, PA
2012 Handgepäck, Neuwerk-Kunsthalle, Konstanz, Germany
Below Orion’s Belt, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2011 PLEXUS, Esther Massry Gallery, College of St. Rose, Albany, NY
2010 Propositions, David Krut Projects, New York, NY
Centennial Drift, BravinLee Programs, New York, NY
2009 Centennial, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
2008 Recombinant Histories, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 We are the Revolution, Converge 45 Biennial, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland, OR
Crisis of the Image (curated by Jacob Rhodes, Kris Racaniello, Lisa Schilling, Catalog essay by Kirsten Gill), Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Arlington, VA
Draw: Point to Point, Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
Dreams Deferred: Reflections on Liberty, Equality and Sovereignty in U.S. Art, Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse, NY
PeopleScapes: Portraits of Humanity, United States Department of State, Washington, DC
2022 Singing in Unison (curator Phong Bui), Scully Tomasko Foundation, New York, NY
Time’s Relentless Melt, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
2021 Haunted Summer, Field Projects, New York, NY
2019 Forms of Enclosure: New Prints, International Print Center New York, New York, NY
Pulled in Brooklyn, (represented as Master Printer), IPCNY, New York, NY
Human Condition, Guttenberg Arts, Guttenberg, NJ
2018 XTCA Cross Town Contemporary Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA
475 Kent, Spring Break Art Fair, New York, NY
New Editions, Paper Crown Press, E/AB Art Fair, New York, NY
Skowbooks, Skowhegan School of Painting and Drawing, Book Fair, New York, NY
Dialogues in Print, Monmouth Museum, Lindcroft, NJ
2017 Excavation, Illusion+Artifact, Munsion Williams Proctor Arts Museum, Utica, NY
Signs and Signifiers, Davis Gallery at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
Dream of Flight, Danish Technical Museum, Helsingor, Denmark
Published by the Artist, International Print Center New York (IPCNY), New York, NY
Dialogue(s) in Printmaking, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Dialogue(s) in Printmaking, Atalier Gallerie21, Cologne, Germany
Virtual to Physical: thepostdigitalprintmaker, Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, NY
2016 Fixed/Fluxed, Burlington City Arts
Dialogue(s) in Printmaking, ICPNA Museum Biennial, Lima, Peru
Victory Garden, Planthouse, New York, NY
ALOE: A Language of Exaltation, FiveMyles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Printer’s Printer, 20/20 Robert Blackburn Gallery, New York, NY
The Things I Carried, Blue Star Arts Center, San Antonio, TX
We’re Talking About Practice, San Antonio College, San Antonio, TX
2015 Bronx Calling; Third AIM Biennial, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY
Moving Images: Printmaking and Animation, International Print Center of New York, NY
FLOW 2015, Public Project with Randall’s Island Park Alliance, NYC Parks
Commission, and the Bronx Museum, New York, NY
Commedia, International Print Center of New York (IPCNY), New York, NY
Party Beuys: What comes after Farce, collaborative project with East River School Painters, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, NY
50/50 New Prints, IPCNY, New York, NY
2014 Somewhere and Nowheres, IPCNY, New York, NY
New Prints Summer 2014, IPCNY, New York, NY
New Prints Winter 2014, IPCNY, New York, NY
2013 The Morphology of the Print, Lehman Collage Gallery, Bronx, NY
Do It (Outside), Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY
Lithography Here and Now, 20/20 Robert Blackburn Gallery, New York, NY
Brooklyn Prints, St. Joseph College, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Ctrl+P: New Directions in Printmaking, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA
Second City Psychasthenia, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, NY
Revisions, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Appearances 2012/Provincetown Green Arts Festival, Provincetown, MA
Beached, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
2011 The Sound of Two Hands Clapping, NADA Hudson, Canada Gallery, Hudson, NY
Processed, Omni Gallery, Uniondale, NY
New Prints Summer 2011, IPCNY, New York, NY
Vista, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY
Site 92: Work Permit Approved, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
2010 4x4: A Printeresting Curatorial Project, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
Planet of Slums, Mason Gross Galleries, New Brunswick, NJ
(curated by Latoya Ruby Frazier and Omar Lopez-Chahoud)
E/AB Fair, David Krut Projects, New York, NY
Reclaiming Vistas, Puffin Foundation Cultural Center, Teaneck, NJ
Printable: Philagrafika 2010, Serapin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2009 X-Initiative: No Soul for Sale, Vox Populi, New York, NY
The Relief Print: Changing Surfaces, Arts Guild of Rahway, NJ
2008 475 Kent Lives, Queens Museum of Art at Bulova, Queens, NY
Intellectual Property, Meat Market Gallery, Washington, DC
Journey to the Center of Uranus, Canada Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Manhattan Project, Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
Public Collections
Work in collaboration with Zorawar Sidhu in collections of:
Art Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont
Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland, Oregon
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C.
Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse New York
Staaliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Brooklyn and Queens, NY
BIOGRAPHY 2024
Rob Swainston’s (b. 1970, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania) work is informed by a dual academic background in political science and art. He is an Associate Professor at Purchase College and co-founder and Master Printer for Prints of Darkness. Rob has been awarded numerous residencies including Skowhegan, Marie Walsh Sharpe, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Solo and group exhibitions include Marginal Utility, Philadelphia; David Krut Projects, New York; BravinLee Programs, New York; Socrates Sculpture Park, New York; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn; Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown; Print Center New York, New York; Canada Gallery, New York; Queens Museum, New York; and the Bronx Museum, New York. In 2020–21, Rob was the Ludwig Foundation Professor for Printmaking at the Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin.
BIOGRAPHY 2020
Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania and based in New York, Rob Swainston is an Assistant Professor of Art+Design in Printmaking at Purchase College and Master Printer for collaborative printshop Prints of Darkness. His art sits at the intersection of printmaking, painting, installation, and sculpture. Rob received a BA in Political Science and History from Hampshire College and an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University. With this dual focus, Rob claims: “All images are historically negotiated assemblages between humans, machines, materials, and social structures. In a society where social knowledge and power have become pure image, the print technologies historically central to this transformation can act as double-agent. Artists working in print media can be chameleons moving between image-makers and image-reproducers.” Rob has been awarded numerous residencies including Skowhegan, Marie Walsh Sharpe, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Solo and group exhibitions include Marginal Utility, David Krut Projects, Bravin Lee Programs, Socrates Sculpture Park, Smack Mellon, Munson Williams Proctor Museum of Art, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, IPCNY, Canada Gallery, Queens Museum, and the Bronx Museum.
Swainston began teaching in the printmaking program at Purchase College during 2012–13 as a part-time lecturer and in 2013–14 as a visiting assistant professor. He has been a visiting artist/critic at numerous institutions, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, SUNY New Paltz, Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University, College of St. Rose, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, California State University at Long Beach, Mason Gross School of Art at Rutgers University, and Columbia University. Rob is the Ludwig Foundation Professor for Printmaking at Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin for 2020-21.
Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston, both living and working in New York City, are a collaborative art duo exploring the intersection of historical print processes with contemporary technologies. Their projects investigate the complexities of contemporary social issues by drawing from the history of print as the medium par excellence of social movements. They have exhibited together at the Hall Art Foundation, Reading (2024); University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery, Buffalo (2024); Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin (2024); Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Arlington (2023); The Patricia and Philip Frost Art Museum, Miami (2023); Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse (2023); United States Department of State, Washington, D.C. (2023); Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton (2023); among others.
Sidhu and Swainston’s collaborative work is included in the collections of the Art Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown; Hall Collection, Reading; Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin; and the Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse.
RESUME: For Full CV See Download Above
NOTE: Exhibitions and Press starting in 2021 is work in collaboration with Zorawar Sidhu (unless otherwise noted)_
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 (upcoming), Our House is on Fire, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
2024 Doomscrolling, Hall Foundation, Reading, VT
History is Present, Anderson Gallery, University at Buffalo, NY
Zorawar Sidhu Rob Swainston: Plague and Protest, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
2022 Doomscrolling, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
NO JUSTICE! , West Strand, Kingston, NY
2021 2020 Woodcuts, Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2020 Essential Services, 601 ArtSpace, New York, NY
America is Really Hard to See, Spring / Break Art Fair, New York, NY
2019 THE BRAINS, Super Dutchess, New York, NY
American is Really Hard to See, Guttenberg Arts, Guttenberg, NJ
2016 We thought they thought what we thought, but they didn’t,¬¬ University Galleries
Illinois State, Normal, IL (curated by Barry Blinderman, catalogue)
They said what we said, only clearer. Marginal Utility, Philadelphia, PA
2015 Carry On, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
2014 Redacted (two-person show), Public/Private, Old School, Spring Break Art Fair, New
York, NY (curated by Eve Sussman and Simon Lee)
2013 Woodcut Map of Utopia from the Sept. 2013 Edition, Marginal Utility, Philadelphia, PA
2012 Handgepäck, Neuwerk-Kunsthalle, Konstanz, Germany
Below Orion’s Belt, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2011 PLEXUS, Esther Massry Gallery, College of St. Rose, Albany, NY
2010 Propositions, David Krut Projects, New York, NY
Centennial Drift, BravinLee Programs, New York, NY
2009 Centennial, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
2008 Recombinant Histories, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 We are the Revolution, Converge 45 Biennial, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland, OR
Crisis of the Image (curated by Jacob Rhodes, Kris Racaniello, Lisa Schilling, Catalog essay by Kirsten Gill), Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Arlington, VA
Draw: Point to Point, Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
Dreams Deferred: Reflections on Liberty, Equality and Sovereignty in U.S. Art, Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse, NY
PeopleScapes: Portraits of Humanity, United States Department of State, Washington, DC
2022 Singing in Unison (curator Phong Bui), Scully Tomasko Foundation, New York, NY
Time’s Relentless Melt, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
2021 Haunted Summer, Field Projects, New York, NY
2019 Forms of Enclosure: New Prints, International Print Center New York, New York, NY
Pulled in Brooklyn, (represented as Master Printer), IPCNY, New York, NY
Human Condition, Guttenberg Arts, Guttenberg, NJ
2018 XTCA Cross Town Contemporary Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA
475 Kent, Spring Break Art Fair, New York, NY
New Editions, Paper Crown Press, E/AB Art Fair, New York, NY
Skowbooks, Skowhegan School of Painting and Drawing, Book Fair, New York, NY
Dialogues in Print, Monmouth Museum, Lindcroft, NJ
2017 Excavation, Illusion+Artifact, Munsion Williams Proctor Arts Museum, Utica, NY
Signs and Signifiers, Davis Gallery at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
Dream of Flight, Danish Technical Museum, Helsingor, Denmark
Published by the Artist, International Print Center New York (IPCNY), New York, NY
Dialogue(s) in Printmaking, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Dialogue(s) in Printmaking, Atalier Gallerie21, Cologne, Germany
Virtual to Physical: thepostdigitalprintmaker, Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, NY
2016 Fixed/Fluxed, Burlington City Arts
Dialogue(s) in Printmaking, ICPNA Museum Biennial, Lima, Peru
Victory Garden, Planthouse, New York, NY
ALOE: A Language of Exaltation, FiveMyles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Printer’s Printer, 20/20 Robert Blackburn Gallery, New York, NY
The Things I Carried, Blue Star Arts Center, San Antonio, TX
We’re Talking About Practice, San Antonio College, San Antonio, TX
2015 Bronx Calling; Third AIM Biennial, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY
Moving Images: Printmaking and Animation, International Print Center of New York, NY
FLOW 2015, Public Project with Randall’s Island Park Alliance, NYC Parks
Commission, and the Bronx Museum, New York, NY
Commedia, International Print Center of New York (IPCNY), New York, NY
Party Beuys: What comes after Farce, collaborative project with East River School Painters, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, NY
50/50 New Prints, IPCNY, New York, NY
2014 Somewhere and Nowheres, IPCNY, New York, NY
New Prints Summer 2014, IPCNY, New York, NY
New Prints Winter 2014, IPCNY, New York, NY
2013 The Morphology of the Print, Lehman Collage Gallery, Bronx, NY
Do It (Outside), Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY
Lithography Here and Now, 20/20 Robert Blackburn Gallery, New York, NY
Brooklyn Prints, St. Joseph College, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Ctrl+P: New Directions in Printmaking, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA
Second City Psychasthenia, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, NY
Revisions, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Appearances 2012/Provincetown Green Arts Festival, Provincetown, MA
Beached, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
2011 The Sound of Two Hands Clapping, NADA Hudson, Canada Gallery, Hudson, NY
Processed, Omni Gallery, Uniondale, NY
New Prints Summer 2011, IPCNY, New York, NY
Vista, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY
Site 92: Work Permit Approved, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
2010 4x4: A Printeresting Curatorial Project, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
Planet of Slums, Mason Gross Galleries, New Brunswick, NJ
(curated by Latoya Ruby Frazier and Omar Lopez-Chahoud)
E/AB Fair, David Krut Projects, New York, NY
Reclaiming Vistas, Puffin Foundation Cultural Center, Teaneck, NJ
Printable: Philagrafika 2010, Serapin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2009 X-Initiative: No Soul for Sale, Vox Populi, New York, NY
The Relief Print: Changing Surfaces, Arts Guild of Rahway, NJ
2008 475 Kent Lives, Queens Museum of Art at Bulova, Queens, NY
Intellectual Property, Meat Market Gallery, Washington, DC
Journey to the Center of Uranus, Canada Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Manhattan Project, Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
Public Collections
Work in collaboration with Zorawar Sidhu in collections of:
Art Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont
Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland, Oregon
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C.
Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse New York
Staaliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
