Artwork Description
Swoon – Nicole
Dimensions: 72 x 72″
Year: 2016
Medium: Linoleum block print and hand painted acrylic paint on paper and wood
Swoon is widely regarded as the most influential street artist. Her wheat-pasted portraits of everyday people appear on building walls throughout the world, from Hong Kong to Haiti. Most of her street contemporaries, like JR and Banksy, are men. Swoon was the first female street artist to break through in a major way, and inspired a new generation of women artists. Swoon broke through generational trauma, as well, and her sensitive portraits of people she met along the way deliver a potent, and deeply humane standard. Her work is the subject of an upcoming international retrospective, and is shown in museums worldwide.
Swoon created this artwork named “Nicole” with the intention of pasting it onto a detailed wooden geometry. However, the artist was surprised to see that the rays of where the wood elements meet were radiating straight out from the figure’s heart once it was fully pasted down. Swoon loves such accidental coincidences and decided to keep it this way. The piece works with the mandala patterns and is a reference to regeneration and transformation.