Elan Schwartz (he/they) is an interdisciplinary artist from Cincinnati, OH. Their practice is a commitment to practice, abiding to discomfort, confronting the complexities of personhood and relationality with fear and anxiety as fellow companions. They work within an action-oriented practice and use time-intensive processes such as hand stitching, interaction, hand carving, cyanotyping, conversing, and mending.
"My practice is me giving myself permission that I normally don't. Permission to explore, question, toss around, nitpick, caress, stare at, release. And then it bleeds into everything else - the everyday - and becomes a part of the normal. I work with what I need to unravel; I work to work through. My work is in the doing as well as the residue."
Elan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a certificate in Pre-Art Therapy from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. They have had the honor to work at/with organizations including Wave Pool, Indigo Hippo, The Well, The Carnegie, 1001 Colors, as well as in multiple artists' studios including Lorena Molina, Alice Pixley Young, and Amanda Curreri. They have exhibited and performed at spaces including The Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), Matca (Vietnam), Dream Clinic Project Space (Columbus), BasketShop Gallery (Cincinnati), and The Carnegie (Covington). Elan was a recipient of an Artist Opportunities grant from the Ohio Arts Council (2024), was an Illuminate Artist Fellow (2024), and has attended residencies at The Peter Bullough Foundation (2024) and the Contemporary Arts Center (2025). They are currently an MFA Candidate at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
If interested in acquiring pieces, please reach out via email.
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— to be caught in the process of doing something — permission to work through difficult things — manner of learning through the body - embodiment — mapping / building connections between things — time, process, body, everyday — affect in the everyday — observation of change through the everyday — situated within an action-oriented practice — knowledge rooted in action — the labor of making a world collectively — way of working through question —
What rules have I set up? what if I break the rules?
where does it begin?
tenderness as armor (?) (armor against hatred, armor against nihilism?)
where is the work?
quick and slow (is this a type of precarity?)
— it’s the permission for rehearsal - a space in between rehearsal and real — pocket of time to step out of daily life and stress to be introspective — some might say I trust people to a fault - I’d like to keep it that way — invitation to relationship - not a frictionless space - mark making as holding the relationship — says that someone was there - I was there — dedication demonstration — insistence on my body —
does flow of time / flow of real time matter?
can we expect people to show up in certain ways?
am I trying to prove something to myself? that I can? that I can what? that I can do hard things? persist? keep coming back? hold a lot of weight? be strong and soft? not be told what to do or who to be?
is trying hard a bad thing?
is there fairness in anger?
do I share enough? do I give others opportunities to support me?
— being noticed / unnoticed despite all the effort — memory of an action — “art time” feels a little safe — taking up space — indexical mark making — hold, carry, care — i have to remind myself what my core goals are — fleeting moments — you ought to be angry to be a comprehensive person - but there’s no room to be angry —
it’s not meant to be easy
practicing confronting
life moments touch on it, art moments dive deep with less hesitation