Swing II 24" x 24"

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James Nowak’s Swing II, from the 2025 New Works Collection, continues his exploration of rhythm, movement, and musicality in abstraction. Following Swing I, this second canvas refines the series’ focus on restraint, clarity, and improvisational energy. If the first installment emphasized spontaneity and playful buoyancy, Swing II presents a sharper sense of syncopation, with marks that feel more deliberate and percussive. It is less about airy improvisation and more about rhythmic precision—yet without losing the sense of play central to the “swing” ethos.

The composition features a sparse but purposeful arrangement of strokes set against a cool blue ground. Thick black arcs and curves dominate, creating a strong rhythmic backbone, like bass lines grounding the piece. Yellow vertical strokes introduce brightness and momentum, while red-orange ovals act as accents—short, syncopated bursts of color.

Compared to Swing I, the distribution of marks here feels more measured. The gestures are spaced with care, creating a rhythm of beats and rests across the canvas. The blue ground operates like silence or open air, amplifying the percussive quality of each stroke.

The pared-down palette enhances the work’s musicality. Black asserts gravity and structure, yellow injects vitality and lift, and red-orange adds warmth and tension. The interplay of these colors echoes jazz’s layered textures: the grounding of rhythm, the brightness of brass, the punch of improvisatory accents.

The overall tone is both playful and precise. Where Swing I evoked looseness, Swing II conveys a sharper, almost staccato rhythm. The tension between freedom and control, improvisation and structure, animates the painting.

At its core, Swing II is a meditation on syncopation and interval. Nowak demonstrates that rhythm in abstraction emerges not only from gesture but also from spacing—the deliberate placement of strokes that creates expectation, surprise, and balance. The gaps between marks are as meaningful as the marks themselves, embodying the jazz principle that silence is integral to sound.

The title suggests continuity: this is not a repetition but a variation, the second phrase in a larger improvisational sequence. By emphasizing syncopation and restraint, Nowak expands the language of the Swing series, showing how minimal marks can carry musical weight.

Within the 2025 New Works Collection, Swing II complements and contrasts with the denser canvases of the Symphony series and the lyrical expansiveness of the Delicate Spring works. The Swing series demonstrates Nowak’s interest in reduction, testing how few marks are needed to convey rhythm, play, and vitality. As the second work, Swing II clarifies the series’ identity: a dialogue between minimalism and musicality, order and improvisation.

Swing II distills James Nowak’s abstraction into its rhythmic essence. Through bold black arcs, buoyant yellow strokes, and syncopated red accents, the painting captures the feel of jazz swing—measured yet improvisational, precise yet playful. As part of the 2025 New Works Collection, it underscores Nowak’s versatility and his ongoing exploration of how painting can embody rhythm, not just visually but experientially.