THE COWBOYS MADE ME CRY

May 28th - July 10th

Featuring Asif Hoque, Eleni Giannopoulou, NH Depass, Camille Rouzaud, Melanie Luna, Rachel Jackson, David Surman, Amy Bravo, Lujan Perez, Joseph Cochran II, Aris Azarmsa, Jose Arrigoitia, Emmanuel Rivera, Catheris Mondombo, Debra Broz, and Vyczie Dorado.

Swivel Saugerties is pleased to announce its inaugural show at its new location of 258 Main Street is Saugerties, New York. “The Cowboys Made Me Cry,,” a group exhibition, opens SaturdayMay 28th. This sixteen person group show brings together a diverse group of artists to examine their collective human synchronicity through the motif of horses. The intergenerational and multidisciplinary exhibition includes sculpture, installation, painting, photography.

Throughout recorded history, the horse has been an ever-present figure, a strangely prevalent bystander who has witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations. The first representation of these majestic creatures appeared in prehistoric cave paintings such as those in Lascaux, estimated to be about 17,000 years old. Even in a post-modern world where their utility has almost become obsolete, they remain ubiquitous in society. The four-legged majesties have seen a major resurgence in contemporary art in recent years, begging the question of how and why we, as people, are so intertwined with these beings and what this reveals about the human psyche.

The artists of “The Cowboys Made Me Cry” excavate this phenomenon by interpreting their own relationship with these animals. The artists consider the animal’s raw but contained power, celebrating these entities as emblems of strength through recent times of strife. The works explore posture and subjectivity - what it means to hold your head up high through adversity. The beings are inextricably linked to mankind, emulating and empathetically adapting to our species’ needs in our collective yearning to be free. They symbolize our desire to connect to the earth amidst rapid technological advances; seen in the way in which we still marvel at horses over any man made invention.

In their domestication, the horse has gone from a tool to a pillar of pop culture and reference. Throughout many layers of history they still yield curiosity. Why have they never left our side despite our ceaseless failures as a society, despite our cruelty...? This is the inquiry we open for creative investigation.