SWANS (Slow War Against the Nuclear State): Atomic Dragons

Pitzer College Art Galleries presents Atomic Dragons, a group exhibition by the intergenerational collective SWANS (Slow War Against the Nuclear State), featuring Fiona Amundsen, Nancy Buchanan, Judith Dancoff, Hillary Mushkin, Sheila Pinkel, elin o’Hara slavick and Lucy HG Solomon of Cesar & Lois, her collaboration with Cesar Baio. Formed in 2022, SWANS examines the social, political, and environmental impact of the nuclear age through video, photography, drawing, sculpture, archival materials, mixed media, and research-based works.  

Rooted in feminist art lineages, decolonial practice, and anti-nuclear environmental activism, Atomic Dragons connects the personal and the political, linking the Cold War and the start of the atomic era to present-day questions of waste, contamination, transgenerational nuclear justice, and the global expansion of nuclear weapons and power plants. The exhibition underscores how nuclear imperialism is inseparable from colonial histories, from uranium mining on Indigenous lands to weapons testing in colonized and occupied territories. Drawing on family archives from renowned physicists, the Manhattan Project, and histories of activism, several members address the long-term impacts on their life trajectories as they continue to grapple with the nuclear legacy. Tracing the nuclear lifecycle from extraction and testing to production and waste, the exhibition foregrounds its enduring human and environmental costs.  

Bringing together works that reckon with the fallout of the atomic era, Atomic Dragons places historical narratives alongside contemporary discourse, demonstrating that these concerns are not just relics of a bygone Cold War era. From Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukushima and Chernobyl to local sites such as San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County, the exhibition shows that these issues of waste management, public health, and the growth of nuclear weapons are critical and long-term concerns. 

Related Events

Reception
Saturday, February 7, 2026, 5:00 - 7:00 pm

Public Symposium
Saturday, April 4, 2026 
Benson Auditorium

Image Caption

Nancy Buchanan, American Dreams #3: Sweet Dreams, 1981, pastel and pencil on paper.