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Meet Anselmo Swan, Ian Tan Gallery’s Artist of the Month for July

Home #7 (2022), oil on canvas 37″ x 245″

The Goods from Ian Tan Gallery

Vancouver, BC | In this new monthly series, the Ian Tan Gallery highlights one exhibiting artist or artist they represent, by asking them to answer a short four-question interview designed to introduce them to Scout readers.

Meet Anselmo Swan, Ian Tan Gallery’s feature artist for the month of July. Anselmo’s Home Lights exhibition will be in the Gallery from July 9-30.

Please introduce yourself. Who are you, where do you live, and what is your medium?

My name is Anselmo Swan, and I was born and raised in Vancouver B.C. I currently live in Kitsilano.

I work in different media, including intaglio printmaking, graphite on paper, oil on canvas, and watercolour. I am currently working on a series of relief prints.

We know it’s hard to pick a favourite, but if you had to choose one piece from the works you have at Ian Tan Gallery to best represent your style and practice overall, which would it be and why?

I think Home #7, because it recalls memories of having just graduated from high school and the early summer mornings commuting from East Vancouver to a job in North Vancouver. I had been accepted to attend Emily Carr in the fall, and those early mornings, with their dawn light encroaching on the night sky, became a representation of hope and the future.

If you could display your art in any building, establishment, or other place in Vancouver (not a gallery), where would you choose?

I would choose to have my work on display at the Vancouver Public Library. The open spaces and the quiet atmosphere would be ideal for viewing art. It would also be important for me to display my art somewhere that would be accessible to the general public.

Art is a visual experience, but I’d like to challenge you to describe yours using the less obvious senses: sound, taste, smell and feeling.

My Home series was inspired by contemplating homes in the evening as they rest under twilit skies. Walking through familiar neighbourhoods with only the sound of an occasional car going by, I take in those still, quiet evenings of days winding down and families enjoying a respite after a hurried day. The comforting smells of freshly cut grass, a log burning over a fireplace, and a home cooked meal brought to mind thoughts of belonging, serenity and peace. This spoke to me about the universal longing for a place like that; what could be thought of as a true home. Rather than illustrate these scenes, I sought to recreate those experiences in a way that would ultimately speak to the heart.


View more of Anselmo Swan’s artwork online here.


Neighbourhood: South Granville
2655 Granville St.
604-738-1077

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