Bio 

Nastassja Swift is a multi-disciplinary artist redefining her use of portraiture through wool to create work that speaks to geographical histories, ancestry, ritual practices and community. She is a Virginia Commonwealth University alum, holding a BFA in Painting and Printmaking, and Craft and Material Studies. Most recently, Nastassja was selected as the 2024 Textile Society of America Brandford/Elliott Awardee. She is a 2023 recipient of the Center for Craft: Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship, a VMFA Fellowship, a Dr. Doris Derby Award, an Art Matters Fellowship Award, the inaugural Black Box Press Foundation Art as Activism Grant, a Virginia Commission of the Arts Fellowship, and was nominated for the 2024 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship.

Nastassja has exhibited and presented her work in institutions nationally and internationally including VCUQatar, Carl Freedman Gallery in the UK, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Virginia MoCA, Boston University Art Galleries, University of Michigan, University of Florida, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum of Art, Ball State University and a number of galleries across the East Coast. She has had the opportunity to participate in residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the Wassaic Project in NY, SPACES in Ohio, MASS MoCA and has been invited as a Distinguished Fellow at the Penland School of Craft. Her work was recently published in a collaborative Legacy Zine in celebration of the Harlem Renaissance with the New York Times and U.S. Bank, and has been published in the Berlin publication - SomeMagazine, RVA Magazine, Colossal, and Arts and Culture Texas.