Nengi Omuku’s Swing Low (2024) presents figures finding rest and strolling through nature while a political rally unfolds at center right. In Omuku’s signature style, the crowd tumbles over itself, dissolving into an abstraction that blends into the sky and landscape. Realized on vintage sanyan, the painting juxtaposes a serene environment with an awareness of our troubled times globally, as the low-hanging sky ominously swallows the ground as if to suggest both impending disaster and reprieve. The title invokes the popular African American spiritual hymn Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, which describes the transcendence of earthly suffering to find a final home of rest. For this painting, Omuku drew inspiration from the landscape of Perugia, Italy, where her morning walks while in residence at Civitella Ranieri offered breathtaking views that the artist has described as heavenly.