Caledonia Curry, a.k.a. Swoon, creates street art, installations, and sculptural assemblages, merging art and activism with the intent of improving the world. After completing her studies at the Pratt Institute, Swoon realized that she would not be content to only exhibit in galleries and museums. “I wanted to become part of something larger than myself,” she explained. “I wanted to embrace the world.” This desire drove her art into the streets where, since 1999, Swoon has been wheat-pasting life-size portraits of everyday urbanites onto walls in New York and other cities. Swoon takes a humanitarian approach to art and contributed to the reconstruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. At the 2009 Venice Biennale, she shocked and delighted visitors by navigating a flotilla of rafts, handcrafted from scavenged materials and garbage, into the city’s waterways.
