Phyllis Schwartz is a multidisciplinary artist and curator who works in photography, ceramics, and publishing. She is a graduate of Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art + Design with a concentration in photography and a recipient of the Canon Photography Award. Her photography has been installed, exhibited, and published locally, across Canada, and internationally and her works are held in corporate, public, and private collections. These collections include the Farmboy Collection at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia and St. Paul’s Hospital Art Collection, both in Vancouver. Recent exhibitions include Telling Stories: A Visual Arts Exhibition, On-Tak Cheung Gallery/Chinese Cultural Centre, Vancouver; Illuminations and Impressions, die Bedürfnisanstalt, Hamburg; Cascadia, Surrey Art Gallery; and In Camera: The Working Dancer, Mezzanine Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver.
Schwartz is one of few contemporary artists making artwork using the lumen print process. These unique hybrid prints are made by a contact-printing process that leaves traces and shadows on photosensitive surfaces that are digitized. Plant enzymes and atmospheric conditions also interact with the surface to produce unexpected results on photosensitive paper or sheet film, leaving X-ray-like marks of both their shapes and interiors. These impressions of organic forms hover on the cusp of abstract imagery and poetry.
