SWOON AT NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

New York-based street artist Swoon (Caledonia Curry), whose large-scale wheat-pasted posters and prints have appeared in public places from as far as Europe to as close as Bywater, unveils her umbrella-like installation Thalassa at the New Orleans Museum of Art this week.

From the museum
June 10 - September 25, 2011
Swoon: Thalassa

Swoon's "Thalassa" transforms NOMA's Great Hall

On Friday, June 10, the New Orleans Museum of Art unveils a new large scale, site-specific installation by the internationally renowned artist Swoon. This installation, entitled Thalassa, is named for and inspired by the Greek goddess of the sea. The work began with a careful examination of NOMA's Great Hall and was specifically designed for the space. Thalassa will be on display until September 25.

The twenty-foot tall piece depicts a monumental female deity with extended tentacles rising from the waters, her body comprised of colorful swathes of fabric and aquatic creatures. The work is made of an enormous reinforced linocut enhanced with prints and paper cutouts.

"As an artist known for intricate and evocative work both in gallery spaces and in the streets, Swoon was an ideal artist for NOMA to engage with," said Miranda Lash, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. "Her installation invigorates our Great Hall with powerful imagery, and positions the museum as a window to artistic currents flowing outside our doors. Swoon has a talent for transforming the everyday into the mythical."

Swoon's installation of Thalassa was inspired by New Orleans' ties to the sea. New Orleans depends on water for commerce, transportation, energy, and food. The installation is named after the Greek goddess revered as the mother of all sea creatures. The octopus motif also links the piece to New Orleans' legendary red-light district, Storyville, where denizens of its brothels were likened to many-armed creatures separating sailors from their money. The piece thus connects to both New Orleans' past and present, as well as its complex and deep history as a port city.

Main Image via sashaygrunge
Museum link

SWOON IN LA

Beautiful new Swoon piece created for Lahoda's Free walls project in LA.

Thanks to unurth for the link.

SWOON AT MOCA

Swoon + Cat Solen from Levi's Film Workshop on Vimeo.

A Short Film Collaboration

directed by: Cat Solen
artwork by: Swoon
music: My Morning Jacket - mymorningjacket.com

Filmed at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) in conjunction with the exhibition Art in the Streets -

ART IN THE STREETS

Banksy

Banksy

Barry McGee

Os Gemeos

Swoon

A terrific review just posted on Huffington Post from friends and fellow fans Jaime and Steve of Brooklyn Street Art here...

Head here for the full article

(photo's copyright Jaime Rojo)

THE MOCA LA "ART IN THE STREETS" LINE UP IN FULL.

ALEXIS ROSS, ANDRE, A-ONE, BANKSY, BARRY MCGEE, BEAR 167, BILL DANIEL, BILL RAY, BLADE, CHARLIE AHEARN, CHAZ BOJORQUEZ, COCO144, COST, CRAIG COSTELLO, CRAIG R. STECYK III, CRASH, DAN MURPHY, DASH SNOW, DAZE, DELTA, DEVIN FLYNN, DON LEICHT, DONDI, DRUGS, ED TEMPLETON, EINE, ERIK BRUNETTI, ESTEVAN ORIOL, FAB 5 FREDDY, FREEDOM, FUTURA, GORDON MATTA-CLARK, GUSMANO CESARETTI, HAZE, HENRY CHALFANT, HOWARD GRIBBLE, HUGH HOLLAND, INVADER, IRAK, IZ THE WIZ, JAMIE REID, JAMES PRIGOFF, JANE DICKSON, JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT, JOHN AHEARN, JOHN FEKNER, JON NAAR, JOSH LAZCANO, JR, KAWS, KEITH HARING, KENNY SCHARF, KIELY JENKINS, KOOR, LADY PINK, LARRY CLARK, LEE QUINONES, LOOMIT, MALCOLM MCLAREN, MARE 139, MARGARET KILGALLEN, MARK GONZALES, MARTHA COOPER, MISS VAN, MISTER CARTOON, MODE 2, NECKFACE, NOC, OS GEMEOS, PATTI ASTOR, PHASE 2, RAMMELLZEE, RETNA, REVOK, REVOLT, REVS, RISK, ROA, ROBBIE CONAL, RON ENGLISH, SABER, SHARP, SHEPARD FAIREY, SJK161, SNAKE 1, SPIKE JONZE, STELIOS, STEPHEN POWERS, STEVE GRODY, SWOON, TAKI 183, TEEN WITCH, TERRY RICHARDSON, TODD JAMES, TOXIC, TRACY 168, ZEPHYR

SWOON INTERVIEW FOR ACCLAIM

Swoon during Nuart 09

ACCLAIMmag.com | SWOON INTERVIEW from ACCLAIM Magazine on Vimeo.

From Acclaimmag

Renowned for her delicate paste ups and large scale installation work, New York artist, Swoon, recently made a trip to Melbourne for her first Australian exhibition, Thekla, at the Metro Gallery in Armadale. The petite artist was run off her feet when we visited her in the gallery, but she managed to sit down with us to chat about her upbringing, her artistic process and future projects. In this nice little film by ACCLAIM lads, Louis Mitchell and Michael Danischewski, she spoke extensively about space, context and participation and how these inspire and impact her work

SWOON PREPARES FOR MOCA'S ART IN THE STREETS

Swoon preparing what looks like her largest most ambitious install yet, destined for MoCA's upcoming Art in Streets show.

Images via Juxtapoz

SWOON DEBUT SHOW IN AUSTRALIA

METRO GALLERY VICTORIA AUSTRALIA

SWOON

Opening night Feburary 16th 2011, 6.30pm - 8.30pm.
Swoon will be in attendence.
This is Swoon's first solo exhibition in Australia.

Looks like the work is already online and for sale.

Swoon has been working on the streets of New York City for over 10 years, creating large scale paste-ups of the every day inhabitants of the Big Apple. She uses traditional print making techniques to reproduce these beautiful images at life size before hitting the streets to create her own unique, narrative driven cityscape. Swoon also ensures that each piece she creates is inherently unique by physically cutting details into her works, this process of subtraction allows the pieces to take on a life of their own on the street because the textures and tones of the surface they are pasted on then become integral to the construction of the work themselves. While the method of her work is indebted to both traditional craftsmanship and classic painterly technique, her execution is entirely modern. It is this method of incorporating both age old techniques and contemporary graffiti practice that makes her work so compelling, not to mention highly sought after. She has contributed work to MOMA, Art Basel Miami, and the Brooklyn museum.

CALLIE CURRY AKA SWOON ON TED

Terrific talk from artist Swoon for TED

SWOON IN PARIS

IN THE STREETS WITH SWOON from Art For Breakfast - Le Royal Mon on Vimeo.

artforbreakfast.com

SWOON "WALKI" PRINT FOR HAITI

One of the most affordable Swoon prints in sometime, for a very worthy cause and if you get your order in now, you may have it time for Xmas.

Swoon and Upper Playground Present:
The Walki Print for The Konbit Shelter Project.

New York based artist, Swoon, has teamed with creative lifestyle brand, Upper Playground, to release the limited edition Walki print - 100% of the proceeds from the print will go towards support of The Konbit Shelter Project.

The Walki print is an immediately touching portrait by Swoon of a boy named Walki who lives in the village of Bigones and spent time with the Konbit Shelter team at the community center building site this last summer. The print is made of a three-layer screenprint on handmade Indian jute paper measuring 13" x 21" and is limited at an edition of 300 - all proceeds from the sale will go towards support of the Konbit Shelter Project.

The print will only be on sale for a limited time until January 1st and is priced affordably at $125 so that as many people as possible can be involved with this unique project. The print is available exclusively here.

UPPERPLAYGROUND

The Konbit Shelter Project
The Konbit Shelter Project was created with the idea that a group of artists, engineers, architects and builders could pool their individual knowledge, resources and time to make a lasting difference in post- earthquake Haiti. Konbit Shelter is a rebuilding initiative, which uses dome- style structures and the super-adobe technique of earth bag architecture to create sustainable, inexpensive and dependable housing for the people of Haiti. While the structures are extremely resistant to natural disasters, they also have the major benefit of being comprised of 90% earth and requiring no specialized scaffolding and understructure to build - making it a viable option for the people of Haiti to continue building on their own once they learn the method.

More info : Konbit Shelter

SWOON ZAHRA RELEASE

SWOON : NEW PRINT ASSEMBLAGE : ZAHRA
Released today on Papermonster, 12 noon NYC time.
See more here

An all time favourite and can be found on the streets not too far from our office. Terrific to see the work that has gone into these and that this isn't "just another xmas print drop".

From the Press Release

This release will feature a series of unique variants based on Swoon's iconic Zahra image. As you may recall we have mentioned this project in the past couple of emails and are pleased to finally release these pieces on the site.

To give you a little background, the project started out consisting of an edition of cut & dyed paper pieces designed to be layered on top of one another to create an assemblage print. The initial idea was to chine-collé a series of 3 cut elements onto a heavy printing paper to create the central Zahra image. As the project progressed and Swoon became more and more involved, we ended up handing her a stack of intricately cut japanese paper pieces to play around with and crossed our fingers they would stay in tact while she experimented. What she brought back to us a couple of months later we were blown away by.

This edition of 31 unique variants include works on found wood, fabric, cardboard and paper. The pieces themselves consist of a variety of these elements collaged to form a backing onto which the central Zarha paper-cut image is applied. Not all of the elements made it into each piece, and many were embellished with scraps and free-cut paper forms Swoon pulled from her travels and studio work. Below are a few preview photos to better illustrate these pieces.

SWOON TO BUILD HOUSE

SWOON BUILDS A HOUSE


From Nola.com

Better known by her street-art alias Swoon, Curry is a New York-based superstar renowned for her alluring large-scale drawings of mythological men and women that she sticks to public walls with school paste. Hers is a kinder, gentler form of graffiti. Swoon also is famous for the rag-tag rafts and boats built from recyclables that she and friends float from place to place as a sort of nautical performance art.

She now plans to build a house on Piety Street. If the finished structure turns out anything like the charming doll-house-sized model, it will be a towering pixie temple with a star-shaped floor plan, a zigzag wrap-around porch and pointy cupola, adorned with assorted dormers and flying filigree. The house is meant to double as a domicile for visiting artists and a sort of walk-in musical instrument complete with built-in percussion machines and electronic tone producers of some sort.

Swoon, whose work is characterized in part by its temporary nature, acknowledged that she has “personally never tried to create a permanent house, a permanent structure.” She was invited to New Orleans by Delaney Martin (director of New Orleans Airlift, an organization meant to help artists travel), and has spent six months in cahoots with kinetic artist Taylor Shepherd, architect Wayne Troyer and others to make her dreamy dream-house a reality.

As she and Shepherd laughingly explained at their warehouse studio earlier this week, the house lacks a name, a construction schedule and sufficient funding. But considering Swoon’s past triumphs, we shouldn’t be surprised to see the whimsical design someday join the Crescent City’s list of architectural marvels.

SMALL ACTS OF RESISTANCE

What looks like another great little show opening tonight at Black Rat Projects in London. Nice that it features a batch of previous Nuart artists and also includes our very own producer extraordinaire, Dotmasters !

SMALL ACTS OF RESISTANCE
Thursday 4th November 2010 from 6pm - 9pm
Black Rat Projects, Through Cargo Garden, Arch 461, 83 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3AY

In ‘Small Acts of Resistance’ Black Rat Projects brings together six international contemporary artists whose work bears the stamp of both the artist’s aesthetic vision and the activist’s world changing ambition. Works by Peter Kennard, our very own DotMasters, Matt Small, Know Hope and Armsrock will be on display from Thursday 4th November –Tuesday 30th November 2010. In addition to this, there will be a large-scale site specific installation created by Swoon.

NEW FROM SWOON

Swoon jumps into the Detroit project, carefully pasting her portraits and lace-like paper pieces onto the interior of an ailing Detroit home.

Juxtapoz, along with Power House Productions out of Detroit, teamed up to purchase homes in the community which artists Swoon, Ben Wolf, Monica Canilao, RETNA, Rene Almanza, and Richard Colman will be beautifying over the coming days and weeks to help build a sustainable community.

The funds to purchase these Detroit homes were raised through the Juxtapoz 15th Anniversary Art Auction in November 2009.

More on the project at Juxtapoz