Tom Swope when he was working for Asher Edelman creating Daedalus Gallery. This photo was taken for an article in M Magazine before the gallery was open in 1989.

Tom Swope graduated from Harvard in 1980 with a degree in Fine Arts, focusing on Ancient and Renaissance art. He moved to New York City, and worked for Matthias Komor Gallery. Matthias Komor was a distinguished gentleman dealer of the old school who dealt in antiquities, which included Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Ancient Near Eastern, Pre-Columbian, Tribal, and also Japanese scroll paintings and works of art. In 1984, Tom Swope was hired by the Robert Miller Gallery to create and run a department of Antiquities for the gallery.

In 1989 he opened his own gallery in the Fuller Building in partnership with Asher Edelman. The gallery was named Daedalus, after the mythological inventor of sculpture. Swope curated a number of exhibitions for the gallery including “Father Deities” which focused on the image of the bearded benevolent gods Zeus, Hercules, and Poseidon, as archetypes for our own image of God himself. Swope also wrote the accompanying catalogue.

Swope left the gallery in 1991 to become a private dealer. In addition to his activities as a dealer and consultant, he created a line of jewelry, starting with rings, inspired by ancient Roman examples. Barney's New York carried the line for several years, and it is now available exclusively in the Hudson gallery.