On View at Museum of Fine Arts
Gio Swaby: Fresh Up
The multidisciplinary artist Gio Swaby (b. 1991, Nassau, Bahamas) whose work explores the intersections of Blackness and womanhood opens May 28 at the Museum of Fine Arts in downtown St. Pete. The exhibition features more than 40 works ranging from intimate portraits to life-size textile panels fabricated from sewn line drawing and quilting techniques. Creating unique portraits through a range of textile-based techniques, Swaby’s work is anchored in a desire to celebrate the imperfect and complex humanity of Black women.
“I would describe my work first and foremost as an act of love,” said Swaby. “For me, these physical pieces are not necessarily the work itself. The work is more making connections and growing love. Those portraits are like a dedication to that work, or a residue of that work.”
“Swaby’s portraits, wherein Black female subjects are defined through the lens of reciprocal love and caring, are a form of resistance to one-dimensional presentations of Black womanhood, said co-curator Katherine Pill. “Her works are commanding, but nuanced in their representations of strength and vulnerability, and seem to ask viewers to consider the interiority of the subjects and the depth of their inner complexities.”
The exhibition is co-organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg and the Art Institute of Chicago and co-curated by Katherine Pill, Curator of Contemporary Art at the MFA, St. Petersburg, and Melinda Watt, Chair and Christa C. Mayer Thurman Curator of the Textile Department at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The exhibition opens May 28, 2022 through October 9, 2022
Museum of Fine Arts
255 Beach Dr. NE
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
www.mfastpete.org
