Street artist Swoon has been busy in the last three years, working on projects for galleries and museums in Los Angeles, Boston, New Orleans and Mexico, as well as helping to set up an arts centre and artisanal tile factory in Pennsylvania. To keep everyone on this side of the pond up to date about her recent work, the American has recreated the highlights for us in one handy location – LJ Galerie in Paris.
In Motherlands, referencing the death of her mother last year, Swoon translates her wheatpaste murals from their native 2D state into installations, using the gallery space (the exhibition is mainly in the venue’s basement), positioning and lighting to create an extra dimension to her linocut works. Featuring imagery absorbed from her travels, she tells her stories through a mixture of portraiture and illustration, with a strong textural aspect. We see scenes from a trip to Kenya, artists working on the Braddock Tile factory, and in one of the most dominant installations, the Greek goddess Thalassa rises from the sea in spectacular fashion. The exhibition has been extended to run until 1 February.
