Ben Brown Fine Arts is delighted to present stuck in neutral, the second solo exhibition of Ena Swansea to be held at the Hong Kong gallery, taking place between 30 September – 30 November 2022. The exhibition will feature a group of vibrant, ingeniously imaginative and masterfully rendered new paintings from the New York-based artist.

The exhibition title, stuck in neutral, refers to an illusory, slippery transition from a global pandemic back to simpler times. The group of nine paintings present initially familiar motifs – snow covered fields, roiling ocean waves, bucolic allées and autumnal forests – yet upon deeper engagement become disquietingly surreal and enigmatic. Characterized by their ambiguity, Swansea’s paintings do not offer a specific narrative, therefore allowing flexibility for the viewer in their perception of them. Swansea’s paintings unveil the everchanging state of our moment, the dense landscapes in her work revealing traces of human life and whispers of sly humor that hint at the optimism through which she views the future; the enjoyment of the ethereal and spectral figures is apparent throughout this body of work.

In kill the headlights and put it in neutral, 2022, a driverless car glides into the picture plane with a Viking woman standing on top carrying a skull-adorned apparatus, and in the background, a long- abandoned NASCAR racetrack that still exists in a pine forest in North Carolina is depicted. This hidden landscape rich with history and stories of the past is reflective of Swansea’s own Southern roots, which she often references in her practice. This relationship is seen again in abandoned ticket booth at the abandoned NASCAR racetrack, 2022, where the small, empty wooden building in the forest slowly decays under the blazing sun. The work is painted directly on wood, reinforcing the sublime beauty and vulnerability of this natural element.