We met up with full-time Ob/Gyn doctor and artist, Dr. Steven Swancoat on a Wednesday night at his TriBeCa penthouse art studio for an exclusive interview and tour. We were shown the evolution of his art work on the walls as well as works in progress on his desk, which he had earlier been working on. He introduced us to his first paintings from when he was still in medical school, which looked like bright neon Jackson Pollock-splattered canvases. He then progressed to take us through the next few years of various pop art that he had created and kept in his personal collection. Steven showed us photo albums of art events that he had organized in the past, along with his dedicated charity works with the arts as well as cancer research, sharing with us how much time and planning was behind it all.
His most notable charity event took place last year, where he hosted a massive art show and fundraiser with Susan Sarandon at her Ping Pong Club, SPiN in NYC, which had never been done before. At the time, Spin did not have any paintings on the walls, nor did they regularly host charity events. After hosting Steven’s successful and epic fundraiser, the ping pong club completely renovated their space and filled it with painted murals all over their walls. They also host events regularly now. Steven had basically turned the ping pong club into a circus of a party for the masses to enjoy themselves for a good cause: getting three different Dj’s to play, and even having acrobats performing. The event was a huge success and since then, SPiN has taken a different approach to their art direction and event planning. Although Steven takes pride in influencing SPiN to evolve as a company, he explained to us how it was not easy to pull off. It took him six months to plan the fundraiser, paying attention to every last detail, like getting the photo booth for social media and for people to leave with photos to remember the event by.
Finally, at the end of the studio tour, he showed us his newest series, which is completely different than what he’s ever done before and is setting him apart from other artists today. Right from when he started, Steven Swancoat was a transformational artist: transforming himself from abstract artist, to pop artist, and now he has revolutionized himself to be a photographer of astronomy, a.k.a “astrophotographer.” He walked us out onto his Tribeca terrace, where he introduced us to his set-up telescope that he uses for his newest art form, which features photography print outs of astronomy. He uses one of his many telescopes to shoot both deep space and high-resolution lunar imaging. What started as a simple hobby of astronomy over the past year has morphed into not only his newest art form but another passion along with painting. What sets Steven apart from other artists who print astronomy, is that he captures all of his own images on his telescope, whereas others would simply take images, which were shot by NASA.
Steven will be debuting his new astronomy prints in this year’s Art Basel in Miami, Florida and we will all be looking forward to seeing him pull off yet another epic art show.
Check out his website: http://swancoatart.bigcartel.com/
Follow him on Instagram: @SwancoatArt
Email: [email protected]