Tony Swain uses sheets of newspaper as material support – a space in which to reconfigure or recontextualize the original content. His paintings replace, blend, and obscure the printed content with painted imagery. Weaving together fantastical scenes and representations through image repetition, multiple layers of paint, or a stitching together of newspaper pieces, Swain’s works are extraordinary, fragmented compositions. In an article in the Guardian, he avowed an interest in ‘preservation’: ‘The focus of a newspaper is the “now,” but it is a medium that is intended for little more than a cursory glance. I try to unearth aspects of it that might be of more permanent interest and refocus attention onto them.’
