Gio Swaby

Claire Oliver Gallery is pleased to announce its presentation at the 2024 edition of Art Toronto as part of the Discover program, presented by the Royal Bank of Canada. The...

Claire Oliver Gallery is pleased to return to EXPO CHICAGO for the ninth year in a row, presenting an exhibition of new works by artists Gio Swaby and BK Adams....

Claire Oliver Gallery announces our curated program for SCOPE 2023. New large-scale installations by Aaron T. Stephan, Lauren Fensterstock, & BK Adams will have a significant presence at the fair....

' My work operates in the context of understanding love as liberation - a healing and restorative force. These pieces celebrate personal style, vulnerability, strength, beauty, individuality, and imperfections.' -...

''My work revolves around an exploration of identity, more specifically, the intersections of Blackness and womanhood. I am interested in the ways in which this physical identity can serve as...

'My work operates in the context of understanding love as liberation—a healing and restorative force. These pieces celebrate personal style, vulnerability, strength, beauty, individuality, and imperfections.' Gio Swaby: Fresh Up...

Please join us to view our summer group exhibition featuring new works of art by Barbara Earl Thomas, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Robert Peterson, Stan Squirewell, Gio Swaby, and introducing the work...

The Bahamian-born artist Gio Swaby sews portraits in fabric and thread that she has called “love letters to Black women.” She starts with a photograph of the subject, and in...

Claire Oliver Gallery is thrilled to announce our return to Chicago for a long-overdue in-person celebration of art. At this inception of EXPO CHICAGO, the Gallery will bring major new...

Point of Contact features the work of four artists whose practices vary but share commonality in their desire to reframe the often politicized Black body. Featuring figuration across mediums including Thomas’s signature polychrome cut paper, Swaby’s thread line
drawings on textile and polychrome quilt portraits, Peterson’s monumental oil on canvases and Squirewell’s mixed media photo collage, each work presents an opportunity for engagement where the art historical “gaze” is reversed and viewers are met as equals. The four artists use their works as a striking rebuke to white supremacy, eschewing negativity, they uplift by depicting their community in beauty, joy, and power as the ultimate form of resistance.

'A major aspect of Ms. Swaby’s practice is using her work as a celebration. For her, being joyful as a Black woman, as well as connecting and sharing in that...