How can I buy a work by Char Schwall?

Bruno David Gallery handles the sale of available works by Char Schwall. For prices and availability, email info@brunodavidgallery.com or call +1 314 696 2377.

Where can I see work by Char Schwall in person?

At Bruno David Gallery, 7513 Forsyth Boulevard, Saint Louis, Missouri 63105, during public hours or by appointment.

What does Char Schwall make?

Acrylic paintings on canvas and sewn, appliquéd and crocheted textiles in chiffon, organza, cotton, cord and yarn, built from curving organic forms drawn from nature and the life sciences, as in the Sea Lover paintings and the Nymphea and Undine textiles (2020).

Where is Char Schwall based?

Char Schwall lives and works in Kansas City.

Has Char Schwall had an exhibition at Bruno David Gallery?

Yes. Sea Lover (30 January to 13 March 2021) is one of her exhibitions at the gallery. Catalogues can be read in the gallery’s Publications library at brunodavidgallery.com/publications.

Char Schwall

Char Schwall (born 1964) is a Kansas City-based painter and fiber artist who works with curving, organic forms drawn from nature and the life sciences, returning often to images of water, growth and change. Her paintings are built from overlapping forms and layered color, and her textile pieces carry the same vocabulary into sewn and appliquéd fabric.

Her recent work pairs acrylic paintings on canvas with pieces sewn and appliquéd in chiffon, organza and cotton; newer works add crochet and hand-dyed cord, yarn and canvas. In them she considers the gendered associations of media and materials, and ideas of surface, fluidity and softness. Her 2021 exhibition Sea Lover included an installation of 18 sewn and appliquéd works. Earlier bodies of work include the Eat Me, Drink Me paintings (2007) and Source Confluence (2011), which a St. Louis review described as biomorphic abstractions focused on water and organic growth.

Schwall earned a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis.

From 1993 to 2013 she was a studio teacher and pedagogista at The St. Michael School of Clayton in St. Louis, working with the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. She co-edited and co-authored In the Spirit of the Studio: Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia (Teachers College Press, 2005; second edition 2015) and has given keynote addresses at the Boise Art Museum and at Daegu National University of Education in South Korea.

Her work has been shown at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, Missouri; the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; the Quincy Art Center in Illinois, where she won Best of Show in the 2009 Biennial Quad-State Exhibition; the Kansas City Artists Coalition; and Webster University’s Cecille R. Hunt Gallery. She has held residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, the Vermont Studio Center and the Ragdale Foundation. Schwall has shown with Bruno David Gallery since 2007, in group exhibitions including its OVERVIEW series and in four solo exhibitions, each with a catalogue: Eat Me, Drink Me (2007); Source Confluence (2011); Breaking, Splitting, Seaming (2017); and Sea Lover (2021).

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