Episode 117 features Gio Swaby, a Bahamian visual artist whose practice is an exploratory celebration of Blackness and womanhood. Her work centres on Black joy as a radical act of resistance. It works through the philosophy of love as liberation and explores pathways of healing and empowerment. It allows space for both the strong and soft to coexist.

Swaby is a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, Canada. She is currently an MFA candidate at OCAD University in Toronto, where she currently resides.

Artist  https://www.gioswaby.com/

Claire Oliver Gallery https://www.claireoliver.com/artists/31-gio-swaby/overview/

MFA St.Petersburg https://mfastpete.org/exh/gio-swaby/

Art Institute Chicago https://www.artic.edu/artists/117638/gio-swaby

Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/chaddscott/2022/07/05/gio-swabys-love-letters-to-black-women-at-museum-of-fine-arts-st-petersburg/?sh=7e908506a54a

Artnet https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gio-swaby-1973064

WWD https://wwd.com/eye/people/gio-swaby-fresh-up-solo-debut-museum-fine-arts-st-petersburg-textile-art-1235177744/

Harpers Bazaar https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a39629027/gio-swaby-textile-portraits-are-a-love-letter-to-black-womanhood/

Orlando Magazine https://www.orlandomagazine.com/gio-swaby-fresh-up/

All images are courtesy of Claire Oliver Gallery

Another Side to Me 4, 2020
Thread sewn on canvas, Collection of Jason Reynolds

My Hands Are Clean 4, 2017
Thread and fabric sewn on canvas, Collection of Claire Oliver and Ian Rubinstein

Gyalavantin’, 2021
Thread and fabric sewn on canvas, Courtesy of the Artist and Claire Oliver Gallery, New York

New Growth Second Chapter 11, 2021
Thread and fabric sewn on canvas, Collection of The Altman Family