Kurt Swinghammer

Kurt Swinghammer is a Canadian musician and visual artist.

He studied at the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD) and is represented in the permanent collection of the Canada Council Art Bank. In addition to painting, Kurt has directed groundbreaking videos for rap legend Maestro Fresh Wes, designed wardrobe for The Shuffle Demons, and illustrated a children’s book of Stompin’ Tom Connors songs.

In addition to his own releases, he appears as a session guitarist on albums by Ani DiFranco, Serena Ryder, and Royal Wood. He has worked extensively as a composer for film and TV and his credits include episodes of The Nature Of Things. A live solo performance is included on the album Concert For St Stephens, released on True North Records.

Kurt’s Canoe Lake – Turpentine Wind WAV series pieces are signed and dated on the back and come with a copy of his Turpentine Wind CD and BluRay. These paintings are based on the WAV files of the vocal tracks from Turpentine Wind, Kurt’s concept album inspired by Tom Thomson. WAV files, the visual representation of sound, can surprisingly resemble shorelines or islands reflected in a lake.  Swinghammer uses abstracted interpretations of these artifacts of digital recording to pay homage to Thomson – whose depiction of  the rugged, untamed North was an existential reflection of a unique aspect of the Canadian identity.

Available Works: