Phyllis Kind Gallery - Rev. J.S. Swearingen

Reverend Johnnie Swearingen was born August 27, 1908, in the rural African American Community of Campground Church, located outside of Chappell Hill, in Washington County, Texas.

He died on January 14, 1993 in Brenham, Texas at age 84 where he settled upon his father's death after World War II.

Reverend Johnnie S. Swearingen's work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums in Santa Fe, Austin, Dallas, New Orleans, Chicago and New York. Swearingen works can be found in the Smithsonian's Museum of American Art, Washington, DC; The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas; the New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana, and; the African-American Museum, Dallas, Texas, among others.


Public Collections
Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, formerly Huntingon Museum
Chappell Hill Historical Society, Chappell Hill, TX
African American Museum, Dallas, TX

Exhibitions 1995–2000
2000	"Reverend Johnnie S. Swearingen" Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, January 15–February 5, 2000
1999	"Black Texas Folk Artists," African American Museum, Dallas, TX
1998	"Spirited Journeys — Self-Taught Texas Artists of the Twentieth-Century" Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, TX Curated by Lynne Adele (traveling exhibition and catalog)
	"Folk Art From the Menil Collection" the Menil Collection, Houston, TX, Curated by Paul Winkler
	"I Make Pictures" The Masterful Paintings of Reverend Johnnie S. Swearingen, African American Museum, Dallas, TX (traveling to Intuit in Chicago)
	"Reverend Johnnie S. Swearingen" from the collection of The Chappell Hill Historical Association Yard Dog Gallery, Austin, TX
	"Folk Harvest" Joan Wich Gallery, Houston TX
	"Texas Folk" Betty Moody Gallery, Houston, TX
	"Look Inside This House," The Paintings of Rev. Johnnie S. Swearingen 1908–1993, Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, TX
1997	"Preacher Art" Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY, Curated by Bill Fagaly
	"Texas Folk Art" (catalog) Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, Curated by Stephanie Smither
	Group Show, Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
1996	"Wind in My Hair" National Museum of Visionary Art, Baltimore, MD, Curated by Susanne Theis
1995	"Tree of Life" (catalog) National Museum of Visionary Art, Baltimore, MD, Curated by Roger Manley
	"Pictured in My Mind" Contemporary American Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama (catalog)