Every exhibition tells two stories: the one on the walls, and the one behind them. For ‘The Life of the Work’, the first major survey of her practice ever presented in the United Kingdom, now on view at Woodbury House, Swoon has written a statement that tells the second, in her own voice.

The American artist Caledonia Curry, known around the world as Swoon, is one of the most significant figures contemporary street art has produced, with work in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum and Tate Modern. But her statement for this exhibition does not begin in a museum. It begins on the streets of London, before street art even had a name.

We publish it here in full.

“London was my first street art love, after NYC.

I remember wandering around asking people where I could find the part of town that had stencils and wheat pastes. No one knew what I was talking about. The term Street Art hadn’t been coined yet. By coincidence I stumbled onto Brick Lane. I was over the moon. It was like an open air gallery of all my favorite artists.

That became the first of many pasting missions in London. I remember a stuffy man in a business suit growling “Vandal!” at me out the side of his mouth as he hurried off to work. I had arrived. Banksy later told me those were the first paste ups of mine he’d seen, and he was moved by how much work someone had so clearly put into something that was going to fade away on a wall.

That whole moment was so alive. It was the beginning of a movement that was both tiny and global at the same time. The moment right before it became a gorgeous behemoth, bigger than any of us had ever imagined. I’ll never forget the electric sensation of being at the heart of something as it is being born.

My creative process has steadily evolved over the years so that there’s always something being born. Sometimes it’s messy, sometimes it’s certain, sometimes it’s celebrated the moment it arrives, sometimes it waits in the wings for a long time before it has its moment. The only thing I know for sure is that there is a deep inner voice which dictates what I will make next, and it’s my life’s work to follow its call.

The pieces you’ll see on the walls in the ‘The Life of the Work’ are the artworks that have ridden shotgun with me through my entire journey. There are elements from every era: from the early street art years, to portraits of people with whom I’ve created decades long community projects, to images drawn from the fairytales that are the heart of my most recent work.

There’s a river of story running through this exhibition, from the worlds inside the images to the stories behind their creation. It’s my honor to bring them together to share with you.”

Swoon

The statement traces, in a few hundred words, the entire arc that ‘The Life of the Work’ puts on the walls.

It begins with London, and it matters that it does. Long before this exhibition, Swoon was pasting work on the streets of this city, at the very beginning of a movement that had not yet been named. That history gives the show a quiet homecoming quality: an artist whose practice touched London at its very start, returning with her first major UK survey in Mayfair.

It captures her creative philosophy, a process in which there is always something being born, guided by an inner voice she has followed for her life’s work. And it describes exactly what visitors will encounter in the gallery: works from every era of her journey, from the early street art years, to portraits of people from her decades-long community projects, to images drawn from the fairytales at the heart of her most recent work, the ongoing ‘Sibylant Sisters’ universe.

The works she describes are the exhibition. Thirty-six pieces spanning more than a decade of making, every one available to acquire. Her statement appears in full in the exhibition catalogue, alongside a gallery introduction by Woodbury House and a foreword by the independent curator Pedro Alonzo. To request a copy, contact the gallery directly on [email protected] or 0203 750 2222, we’d be delighted to assist with your request.

‘The Life of the Work’ by Swoon is on view at Woodbury House, our flagship Mayfair gallery, through 13th August 2026.

Visitors are welcome during gallery hours, Monday to Friday, and admission is free. Every work in the exhibition is available to acquire, from prints and editions to major original works. To arrange a private viewing, request the full list of available works, or enquire about a specific piece by Swoon, please contact the gallery directly.

Woodbury House
29 Sackville Street,
Mayfair,
London,
W1S 3DX

[email protected]
0203 750 2222