How do you depict the beginning of the universe? How does an artist portray a time before art? The book of Genesis is perhaps most commonly rendered with imagery of Adam and Eve: in seminal works such as Masaccio’s frescoes and Dürer’s paintings, the first couple is shown either howling about their demise or paired under a tree, their nakedness gingerly covered by foliage. But these new monotypes, pastels, and paintings by Nigel Swift are inspired by something even earlier: the days before the advent of the first man and woman. With this exhibition, Nigel has taken a more cerebral, abstracted approach to this question of illustrating ‘The Beginning’.
In these works, Nigel looks to the initial five days of creation. First, the earth went from being ‘formless and empty’, with darkness ‘over the surface of the deep’, to then containing the ‘vault between the waters’ (the sky), and the ‘lights in the vault of the sky’ (the sun and the moon). These are the immortal beings on which Nigel focuses – in addition to, occasionally, the vegetation created on the third day and the birds created on the fifth. As was the case with the collections that Nigel has previously presented at Eames Fine Art, these landscapes are all imagined. But in this show, Nigel’s diverse group of atmospheric scenes stems from the few words of the endlessly theorised and mythologised first chapter of Genesis. Nigel has found this a liberating theme to work with, since, unlike later Biblical scenes of Adam and Eve, “there are no visual references to constrain imagination”. It is, instead, “a limitless landscape to explore”.
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Dividing Sky, 2020
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The Dark Day, 2020
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Two Birds, 2020
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WATCH THE FILMNIGEL SWIFT - GENESIS
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Monotypes
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Nigel SwiftRed Desert Sun, 2019£560.00
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Nigel SwiftBeach, 2019Sold
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Nigel SwiftStill Midnight, 2019£560.00
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Nigel SwiftWilderness, 2019£560.00
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Nigel SwiftDark Sun, 2020£500.00
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Nigel SwiftDay Three, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftEdge of Darkness, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftDeep Cavern, 2020£500.00
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Nigel SwiftOpen Earth, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftRed Fire, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftSplit Sky, 2020£500.00
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Nigel SwiftRed Mountains, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftDark Skies, 2020£350.00
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Nigel SwiftThe Sky Divides, 2020Sold
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Nigel SwiftHeaven Rises, 2020£350.00
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Nigel SwiftFalling Sky, 2020
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Nigel SwiftWaves Under the Sun, 2020£350.00
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Nigel SwiftVolcano, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftEclipse , 2020£500.00
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Nigel SwiftTwo Birds, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftQuiet Night, 2020Sold
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Nigel Swift, Night Birds, 2020
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Nigel SwiftFirst Snow, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftFive Blue Trees, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftStopping by the Woods, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftRough Sea, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftAbove the Sea, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftEscape, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftSoaring Birds, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftNight Flock, 2020£560.00
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Nigel Swift, Winter Moon, 2020
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Nigel SwiftMoon in a Tree, 2019£560.00
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Nigel SwiftLast Tree, 2019£560.00
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Nigel SwiftDouble Moon, 2020Sold
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Nigel SwiftSetting Sun, 2019Multiple variations
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Nigel SwiftPink Moon, 2019£560.00
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Nigel SwiftDesert Sunset, 2019£560.00
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Nigel SwiftSand, 2019£560.00
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Nigel Swift, Wine Sea, 2019
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Nigel SwiftEnd of the Day, 2019£560.00
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Nigel SwiftSnow Flurry, 2019£500.00
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Nigel SwiftDeep Gorge, 2019£560.00
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Nigel SwiftSix Birds, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftMarsh, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftFrightened Birds, 2020£500.00
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Nigel SwiftBirds in the Wind, 2020Sold
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Nigel Swift, Noisy Birds, 2020
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Nigel SwiftBare Trees, 2020£560.00
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Nigel Swift, Two Suns, 2020
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Nigel SwiftThe Dark Day, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftDawn, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftSun Storm, 2020£500.00
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Nigel SwiftSun , 2020£500.00
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Nigel SwiftMoonlight, 2020Sold
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Nigel SwiftFrozen Lake, 2020£560.00
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Nigel SwiftNight Cloud, 2020£560.00
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Pastels
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Nigel SwiftMythical Seas, 2019£750.00
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Nigel SwiftLemon Seas, 2019£750.00
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Nigel SwiftStillness, 2019£750.00
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Nigel SwiftTurning Sea, 2019£750.00
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Nigel SwiftReflection, 2019£750.00
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Nigel SwiftMagenta Night , 2019£750.00
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Nigel SwiftLava, 2019£750.00
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Nigel Swift, Red Desert, 2019
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Nigel Swift, Darkness Lifts, 2019
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Nigel SwiftHot Day, 2019£750.00
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Nigel SwiftDeluge, 2019£750.00
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Nigel Swift, Burning Sky, 2019
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Nigel Swift, Enchanted Sea, 2019
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Nigel SwiftSand Dunes, 2019£750.00
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Nigel Swift, Alps, 2019
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Acrylics