EDUCATION
Vermont College of Fine Arts | Montpelier, VT | 2010, Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art (MFA), Feminism, New Genre, Public Art
Massachusetts College of Art | Boston, MA | 2003, Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), Painting
Massachusetts College of Art | Boston, MA | 2000, Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), Sculpture
RECENT Curatorial PROJECTS
Unredacted, Reach Arts, Swampscott, MA. 2019
Emerging, Reach Arts, Swampscott, MA. 2018
M/othering, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA. 2017
Chasing Shadows, Co-curated, Reach Arts, Swampscott, MA.
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
A4Action, A4Ukraine, International Fundraiser (Virtual) 2022
Faculty Showcase, SSU, Salem, MA.
The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2020: Here, Together! NYC, NY. (Virtual) 2020
Reform, Solo Exhibition, Marblehead Museum, MA. 2018
Art for Everyone, The Gretchen Schuette Gallery, Chemeketa Community College, Salem, OR. 2016
Impermanent Resident, Fung Wah Biennale, Flux Factory, New York, NY.
Capital Cleanse, Bruised, “Art as Advocacy,” Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT. 2015
Capital Cleanse, Shades of Gray, ”Roots,” On The Ground Floor, Los Angeles, CA.
Capital Cleanse, Uncertain Caucasian, “Transformation,” Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Silver Springs, MD.
Capital Cleanse, Odds and Ends Caucasians, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, UK.
Capital Cleanse, Uncertain White, Cream and Lavender, Antioch University, WA.
Capital Cleanse, “After the (Ten Bulls,)” Temporary Agency, Brooklyn, NY. Invitational group exhibition.
Reform, (Capital Cleanse) The classical section of MET, New York, NY. Rogue Installation. 2014
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Variations, Marblehead Arts Association, Marblehead, MA. 2018
Trees of Life, Location 1980, Costa Mesa, CA. 2016
A Change Is Gonna Come, Augusta Savage Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. 2015
Eliminate, Florence, IT. Auction for newborns worldwide to receive the tetanus vaccine.
Images of Grief and Healing, Chandler Gallery, Maud Morgan Arts, Cambridge, MA.
On Color, Rolling River Distillery, Portland, OR. Collaboration with Catherine Haley Epstein
(ex)change, Bush Barn Art Center, Salem, OR. Collaboration with Diane Jacobs
After the (Ten Bulls,) Temporary Agency, Brooklyn, NY. Invitational group exhibition. 2014
Theoretics, Concepts and Ideas, Whitney Center for the Arts, Pittsfield, MA. Invitational exhibition.
Eggsistential, 4Art Inc Gallery, Chicago, IL. Invitational group exhibition. 2013
10x10x10x Tieton, Making Small Art BIG! Tieton Arts and Humanities, Tieon, WA.
Within/Without, Kader Gallery, La Crosse, WI. Invitational exhibition with Lisa Ulik. 2012
Flourish, Alumni Works on Paper, Bakalar and Paine Galleries, Boston, MA. Juried group exhibition.
Memory Upgrade, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA. Juried group exhibition. 2010
wALL, SRISA Gallery of Contemporary Art, Florence, IT. Invitational project.
Body Language, South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA. Juried, group exhibition.
MFA Graduate Exhibition, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT. Thesis exhibition.
Small Works Show, Fusion Gallery, Collingswood, NJ. Honorable Mention Award. 2008
Through the Eyes of Strangers, artist visit South Africa, Chemeketa College Art Gallery, 2007
Salem, OR. Invitational, group exhibition.
GRANTS/AWARDS
The Immigrant Artist Biennial Stipend, (Virtual) NYC 2020
Fung Wah Biennial, Flux Factory 2016
A.R.T. Fund award, Artist Resource Trust Fund of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation 2014
Stipend, Millay Colony
Artist Grant, Vermont Studio Center
Juror’s Choice Award, 10x10x10x, Tieton Arts and Humanities 2013
First Prize Award, Memory Upgrade, Center on Contemporary Art 2010
Honorable Mention, Small Works Show, Fusion Gallery 2008
Merit Award, Vermont College of Fine Arts
President’s Award for Outstanding Talent, Mass. College of Art, Boston, MA. 1997
Wilhelmina Denning Jackson Art Award, City of Marblehead, MA. 1996
Mary Chaisson Award, Outstanding Achievement in Art, City of Swampscott, MA.
PUBLICATIONS/BIBLIOGRAPHY
Katz, Matt. “All of it - The Immigrant Artists Biennial,” WNYC, October 16, 2020.
Reines, Mary. "'Emerging' champions perspectives that are fresh, fearless and timely," WickedLocal, June 6, 2018.
Swanda, Tereza. "'Emerging' to be presented at ReachArts," WickedLocal, May 9, 2018.
Huang, Pien. “Artists Pay Tribute To No-Frills Chinatown Bus, Discomforts and All,” Morning Edition, NPR, March 29, 2016.
Voon, Claire. “A Biennial on a Bus Examines the Leisure and Labor of Travel,” Hyperallergic, March 2016
Mack, Laura. Art for Everyone, Open Educational Resource Textbook, Chemeketa Press, June 2016.
Muir, Pat. “10x10x10 Tieton: Mighty Tieton’s small art exhibit keeps getting bigger,” Yakima Herald, August 2013.
Swanda, Tereza. Leap4Kidz Curriculum (k-2,) Leap 4 Kidz Afterschool Art Program, September 2011.
Alonso, Juan. 2010 Annual: Memory Upgrade, Center on Contemporary Art Catalogue, December 2010.
Hays, Ann (ed). Anthology One, Storyscape Journal, May 2010.
Cowan, Ron. “Open Hearts Out of Africa,” Statesman Journal, September 2007.
Pindyck, Maya. "Queers, Crime, Midgets & Murder," NY Arts/Berliner Kunst, June 2003.
Birk, Aaron. "Phylanges," NY Arts/Berliner Kunst, April 2003.
Tomon, James. "Crumbs," NY Arts/Berliner Kunst, December 2002.
RESIDENCIES
Reuse, Reinterpret, Reedit, Mixed Media and Painting, Zoom Workshops with Rosenclaire 2020
Art Safari and Residency, Venice Biennale, Documenta, Munster Skupltur Projekte, 2017
Artist Residency, Rosenclaire, Poppiano, Italy 2016
Virtual Parent Residency, Millay Colony, Austerlitz, NY. US 2014
Painting Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. US
Ceramic Residency, Ceramic Art Center, Nove Vilemovice, Czech Republic 2013
Just Forming Content, workshop with Rosenclaire, Montagnana, Italy 2012
Cob Workshop, Cob Cottage Company, Coquille, OR. US 2010
The Everyday in Contemporary Art and Practice, UC Berkeley, CA. US 2009
Artist Workshop, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa 2004
Artist Workshop, with Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky, Montagnana, Italy 2002
Bio
Tereza was born Mazurova (implying paternal possession) in what was Czechoslovakia and resides both in CZ as well as the States. In her nomadic life, she questions familial and societal roles applied, engendering and classifying, bodies.
Swanda has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and BFA in Painting and Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Swanda has recently received the A.R.T. Fund award to pursue her project, Capital Cleanse, which she installed in a rogue installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has exhibited her work at the Whitney Center for the Arts (Pittsfield, MA), University of Oregon (Eugene,OR), Berliner Kunstprojekt (Berlin), 450 Broadway Gallery (NY), Bakalar and Paine Galleries (Boston, MA), Chemeketa Community College Art Gallery (Salem, OR), and online in Storyscape Journal. Her series, To/From Mothering, shown at the Center on Contemporary Art (Seattle, WA), won first prize. She has been awarded residencies at VSC (Johnson, VT), at the Millay Colony (Austerlitz, NY), and has been attending workshops with Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky in Italy and South Africa since 2000.
Swanda’s distinctions include the Wilhelmina Denning Jackson Art Award as well as scholarship for graduate work.
Statement
Through my work, I reform a given, be it structure, art history, patriarchy, capitalism or the frame. My process involves braking down this 'known,' making rigidity flexible, turn solids to liquids, destabilize the form to reconfigure it into something other.
My work centers on a meeting of the so-called ‘other;’ between feminine and masculine, high ‘art’ and domestic life. The current work is about un-labeling. For example, in Mutual Cleanse, portraits carved out of soap are washed away with daily use. In Impermanent Foundation, the ocean, rain, or other natural phenomena take a classical bust and dissolve the piece. I document the work as it breaks down, examining the traces left over. I am interested in following the unintentional, the mistake, the gap, and explore the space between intentions.