Henry Swanson (b. 1993, Dallas, Texas) lives and works in Brooklyn. He took a BFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016. He works in large scale oil painting and in mixed media, and his works on paper are made with BIC pens, boxed crayons and fluorescent stickers rather than archival materials, combining collage, abstract marks and drawing. The subjects come from a Dallas childhood and from cartoons and comics, filtered through the daily press: toys as visual abstractions, suburban mansions under construction, children's parties gone wrong, luxury performed and undercut. The images ask to be read twice, and he describes himself as a craftsman rather than a commentator.
Solo exhibitions include My Mom Can Drive, If Your Mom Can Pick Up at Anna Zorina Gallery, New York, It's Bigger in Person at Massey Klein, New York, Thorns in the Manger at Anthony Gallery, Chicago, and Mad Festive at the Goss-Michael Foundation in Dallas, made during a residency there. In 2025 he presented the two person exhibition Bidet Duvet at Good Mother Gallery in Los Angeles. He has also held residencies at Vermont Studio Center and At Large Gallery in Brooklyn, and his work has been covered by Hypebeast and Patron Magazine.
In 2024 Plan X presented his exhibition Low Hanging Fruit in Milan.
