Caledonia Curry, or Swoon, is best known as one of the first women street artists to gain international recognition.
Through intimate portraits, immersive installations, and multi-year community-based projects, she has spent over 20 years exploring the relationships of individuals to the built environment, using her art as a catalyst for social change and healing.
However, her expansive practice defies genre. “Becoming an artist was just one of those things that happened in childhood.”
“When I was too young to articulate much about that decision, it was just who I was and what I wanted to spend most of my time doing.”
As a classically trained printmaker, she has innovated new approaches to large-scale relief, screenprint, and paper cutting. The deep consideration of form is inseparable from Curry’s vision of the transformative role of public art in communities.
Her critical engagement with social and environmental justice issues has positioned her at the forefront of the emergent discourse around socially-engaged practice.
“I studied art very traditionally, and working outside was a way to make something in a space that I felt was my own.”
“Funny as that sounds, those walls decidedly did not belong to me, but somehow a city wall was mine more than a classical oil painting was mine.”
Her commitment to expanding the possibilities of art to repair trauma and foster personal and collective healing continues to drive her substantial contributions to contemporary art through experimentation with portraiture, sculpture, and installation. Currently, she is developing a full-length narrative movie that will bring together drawing, immersive installation, stop motion animation, and her collaborative work with storytelling traditions through film.
“Human beings, their expressions, gestures, and concerns were the subjects I took to best, so when I did the first life-sized cutout, it was a portrait of my grandfather.”
“I remember a feeling of surprise, it was like it had made itself, and I knew it was the beginning of something.”
She is a 2021 Sundance Screenwriters Lab Fellow and a 2022 Sundance Directors Lab Fellow, receiving support from Sundance Institute for developing her feature-length stop motion animation film.
Upcoming Exhibitions Include:
- Poster House Museum, NYC, “Masked Vigilantes On Silent Motorbikes,” September 9th, 2022, through February 12th, 2023
- Jyväskylä Art Museum, Finland, “”Graphica Creativa Triennale””, Oct. 22nd 2022 – Jan. 29th 2023
- Beyond The Streets, London, Opening February 2023 at Saatchi Gallery” “Studio Is based in Brooklyn.
For more information on Swoon and her work, visit her Website, Facebook, and Instagram! Also, visit our Beyond the Pail Page to learn more about the Beyond the Pail exhibition and its artists!
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