Gio Swaby in "Focus" at Art Toronto

 Together We Bloom, 2024, Muslin and cotton fabric and thread, 63 × 50 1/2

By BYRON ARMSTRONG October, 2024

Gio Swaby is a Bahamian interdisciplinary visual artist living in Toronto, Canada whose multimedia textile work involves intricate stitching and quilting techniques incorporating colorful fabrics representative of Black joy, empowerment, and beauty. This is as close to painting with textiles as you can get, and justifies the international acclaim, museum shows and acquisitions, and collectors clamouring for the multimedia textile work she’s known for. Swaby has been exhibiting work in group shows in locations as varied as Vancouver, Beijing, Vienna, and back “home” in Nassau, Bahamas, as far back as 2011. However, her art star really began to shine after her solo show “Both Sides of the Sun” at Claire Oliver Gallery in Harlem, New York sold out before it even opened in April 2021. Swaby now brings that star power to the 25th edition of Art Toronto, Canada’s largest art fair, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in the city that she now (sometimes) calls home.

Swaby will have her work shown as part of the Claire Oliver Gallery booth but also, as part of the special Focus exhibition "the place to which we return" curated by Rhéanne Chartrand, the Hatch Curator of Indigenous Art & Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). The Focus exhibition is a specially curated exhibition taking place within the fair that assembles work from Art Toronto gallery participants to explore a central theme. This year, the theme delves into physical and intangible concepts of “home” along with the complexities of that for different groups of people based on identity, geopolitics, and history. I had the opportunity to talk to Swaby about the upcoming work in relation to the "Focus" exhibition and her participation in Art Toronto a few days before the launch of Art Toronto this week.

When did the curator reach out to you about the Focus exhibition, and did you make work specifically for the exhibition or were you already in the process of making new work that the theme just seemed to work with?

We started discussing Art Toronto a year ago. I had my solo show at Claire Oliver Gallery last year and the director of the Toronto Art Fair visited. She had an interest in showing some of the artists from that gallery because there are a couple of other Canadian artists the gallery represents. I found out about the Focus exhibition early this summer toward the end of spring but I did make the work specifically for that exhibition, with the city and the theme of the show in mind.

Together We Bloom, 2024, Muslin and cotton fabric and thread

As a Bahamian living in Toronto, Canada, represented by a gallery in Harlem, New York (Claire Oliver Gallery) I think you’re a sort of a poster child for the better aspects of globalization and migration. When you think about the idea of home, what kind of emotions does that conjure up for you and why?

Thinking about home is always very complicated for me because I've lived in Canada for ten years but I was born and raised in the Bahamas. I moved when I was 23, but that means I spent so much of my adult life here. Things shift a lot when you leave home for a while and you go back home, as in the Bahamas. For me where I grew up doesn't feel like I remember it. It's a different experience because now you've changed with the new places you've been and things you’ve experienced. At first, I wasn't prepared for the shift.  I think it can generate a space of otherness and not belonging, but I think it can also really generate a kind of deeper appreciation for where you've come from. I used to be able to drive ten minutes to the beach if I wanted to. That’s not possible anymore but I now have a different appreciation of Toronto than people who have lived here their whole lives. In the Bahamas, I cannot order something and it's at my door in a minute. That's just not the thing. Or like the conveniences or the vibrance of the city that comes from people always outside or just around. So I guess I kind of pull inspiration from both. But, you know, it's this in-between space that I experience.

So as you’re changing, the place you considered home is also changing. It's not necessarily the same place in your memory that you left.

Oh for sure. I can physically experience that when I go back to The Bahamas. The shop that used to be somewhere is closed now. A landmark you grew up with is gone and it makes everything feel different but the land isn’t enclosed in a time loop or something while you're gone. It's even more complicated for me in that sense of experiencing grief. Both of my parents passed away after I’d already left The Bahamas. My family home in that sense is sort of lost to me, so it’s complicated. I’ve leaned into the novelty of the experience because there are also new cool things. Like, okay this is crazy, but there's a cereal bar in Nassau that infuses cereal flavors into ice cream or a milkshake. You can go and be like, ‘I want a Captain Crunch, Golden Grahams, and chocolate syrup milkshake,” which I would have died for as a kid.

So I guess I appreciate the new experiences that come with those changes to home.

How are those different feelings represented in your artwork for the Focus exhibition?

I think it's shown in the actual construction of the work. I made a nine-piece grid for the exhibition titled “Together We Bloom” that pieces all these figures together using different fabrics, patterns, and colors. Everything comes together to create something cohesive and beautiful. I want to do it in a way that's lighthearted and expresses joy but also acknowledges the other emotions or complexities behind seeking that experience of joy. I think we as artists and as people are naturally affected by where we are. I see my work as a tether to home that keeps me grounded in that sense and connected to the Bahamas. But it's also representative of my home in Canada, including the experiences that I've had and the people that I've met here. I thought a grid would be perfect for that theme and also for the space. I also think the imagery of the nine-piece grid is one of the keystones of my practice that people recognize about my work, and it's my first time showing work in Toronto in years. So I wanted to do something that was really an integral part of the work that I'm making.

The title of the Focus exhibition is “the place to which we return” and as we look at the conflicts in the world today and think about people fleeing or being targeted in their homes, it demonstrates the complexity of returning to places people often leave for very good reasons. While that may not be your experience, did you think about that at all while making work for this show?

I think I always consider that. In a way, being from a place in the Caribbean and the Bahamas, I grew up loving this place so much and loving the people so much. But there are still aspects of that, politically and socially, that I just do not align with. For example, a major conversation happening over the last few years is around trying to recognize marital rape and place it into law in the Bahamas. Religion, specifically Christianity, is such a huge part of the culture, and it influences the majority opinion in the country without most people even realizing it. So that's one example of something that feels regressive and doesn't align with my politics in any way, but I think about it a lot when considering home.

Together We Bloom, 2024, Muslin and cotton fabric and thread

Can the concept of “home” be more than one place for you? Can you sort of compartmentalize different aspects of places to make them home for you?

I think it's a shifting concept for sure. When we first moved here, I would still refer to The Bahamas as home. Now when I’m visiting the Bahamas, I catch myself saying ‘I'm going home in 10 days’ when I’m referring to Toronto. Then when I’m in Toronto, I'll say ‘I'm going home in 10 days.’ I think I have a different concept of home as maybe not necessarily just a geographic space but also the people. I have family here and in the Bahamas. So I think it's always shifting. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as an adult in the last five or more years is that things change, and it's okay to change what you believe as you get new information, which I think a lot of people don't do. So I operate with an openness to that understanding like, ‘Hey if I know this thing today, I might actually know something different about it later on.” That's how I shift what I think and feel about it.

So you make art that’s very much a part of you since it’s considering all of the things we just talked about in relation to “home”, and then some collector comes along and purchases your interpretation of home to hang somewhere in their home. Maybe they have a child whose concept or memory of home will always include your interpretation of home that maybe has nothing to do with theirs, but there it is. If there was a singular line that connects what you’re trying to say about home to that child’s perception of home, what would that be?

I always have trouble with having to condense something down a direct line because it's a big thing. So it's not going to be a line. I guess it would be the idea of this openness, wanting to approach things with an openness and a willingness to understand and shift and change.

I understand that when you're an artist, you're sharing your work in a public space and people will have their own experience with it, which you cannot control. You can add your perspective to the conversation in terms of intention, but once it goes into the public space there's more than just you in the conversation. There's the viewer and all the other people who will share and see this work. So in my making these pieces, even though I'm the artist creating this work and it's my intention, I also have to be open to what may be imposed upon it. I have to be really specific about the way that I contextualize what I say about it and how people relate. That being said, I'm very open to multiple points of entry anyway. Sometimes people see it and they just feel like this is a beautiful thing that made their day a little bit better. That's incredible! Or people will see this work as something connected to their PhD study that's very complicated and academic. That's also incredible! So I try to make space for all those things. The thorough line I guess, would be true to yourself.

I just hope that if a kid has this work in their room—which some do—I want it to be something that becomes part of their childhood memory that opens a door into enjoying and loving art. That's like more than enough for me. WM

The Focus Exhibition at Art Toronto (October 24-27, 2024)

Metro Toronto Convention Centre (North Building)

255 Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario