The 15th edition of Swab Barcelona explores digital realities and imaginary universes in an edition that features painting
The Barcelona contemporary art fair will bring together more than 70 galleries from all over the world at the Italian Pavilion from 6 to 9 October
Erika Hock, ‘Curtain-wave vase and sock’, 2020
Barcelona, July 29th. – Swab Barcelona 2022 shows us the latest trends in the art world through a program marked by fictional universes and digital realities from an encouraging and luminous prism.
On October 6, the Barcelona contemporary art fair will welcome more than 70 local and international galleries that will bring the latest trends on the international art scene to the Italian Pavilion. The selection of the participating galleries will be carried out by the members of the Selection Committee, this year made up of the curators Omar López Chahoud, Jérôme Pantalacci and Domenico de Chirico; and by collectors Giuseppe Casarotto, Marie Elena Angulo and José Luís Lorenzo.
Like every edition, the fair presents its General Program, made up of local galleries such as ADN Galería, Galería L21, Ana Mas Projects, Espacio Mínimo, Galería Fran Reus or Rafael Pérez Hernando, among others; and international exhibitors such as Emerson Dorsch, Galerie Romero Paprocki, Chela Mitchell, Smolka Contemporary or Karpuchina Gallery.
Ernesto Gutiérrez Moya, ‘The Enigma of an Evening in Autumn’, 2021
In parallel, faithful to its vocation of being a visibility platform for new voices, the fair once again bets on Swab Emerging, the subsection of the General Program dedicated to galleries less than five years old that are already showing their ways in the international context, such as CAVE -AYUMI Gallery, Regular Normal, SISSI Club, Swivel Gallery, and Vunu Gallery.
Taichi Nakamura, ‘Dirty river fishing’, 2022
Following in the footsteps of past editions, the fair proposes a special geographically localized program that this 2022 focuses on the Mediterranean. Thus, a selection of Mediterranean galleries will present at Swab the freshest proposals from their artistic context. This is the case of Mixer and Sanatorium (Istanbul), Rhizome (Algeria), and Salehbarakat Gallery (Lebanon).
Sergen Şehitoğlu, ‘Chess Set’, 2021
On the other hand, this edition consolidates Swab Ephemeral, the installation section of the fair. This programme, curated by Caterina Almirall and Margot Cuevas, exhibits installation proposals by resident artists at the Fàbriques de Creació in Barcelona: Fabra i Coats, Hangar, and La Escocesa. The works that are shown in this section play with space and interact with the visitor.
Along these lines, another of the fair’s regular curated programs is Swab On Paper, the section by Carolina Diez-Cascón that explores the possibilities of paper as a medium and as a technique. This year’s edition is joined by galleries from the Middle East such as Anna Laudel (Turkey), and O Gallery (Lebanon).
Within the usual programs, Swab continues betting on the youngest, Swab Seed and MYFAF. The first, the most experimental section of the fair, hosts projects that go beyond the traditional gallery concept and work with alternative exhibition formats. Among the international participants are Duplex, Hyancith, Lí Gallery, Mouches Volantes, Proyecto Caiman, The White, and Trámite, among others. The local spaces that join this edition, sponsored once again by the Fundació Vila Casas, are Dràcul ·la, Halfhouse, Pas Une Orange, and Tangent Projects.
Napoleon Aguilera. “Peacemaker” 2020
MYFAF, for its part, is positioned as a program made up of three young contemporary art galleries, less than two years old, that have not yet participated in any international fair. Swab offers this space for free to help promote new emerging galleries. This year’s participants are Armenia Studio, Kokanas, and LUPO.
Giuditta Branconi, ‘Entusiasta senza riserve sempre tutta la vita’, 2022
Finally, in its mission to explore new exhibition formats, Swab continues to make room for the publishing discipline with the Swab Reading program, which aims to merge design and reading, art and publishing. In this edition Swab invites three European projects to exhibit their publications: Highchairs Editions, Monorhetorik and Rafael Melendez.
Beyond its artistic program, Swab Barcelona maintains its satellite activities, such as Swab Thinks, curated by Gisela Chillida, made up of a series of talks and online debates with relevant curators and professionals from the art world. On the other hand, the fair will maintain its space for children and families within its programming.
This year, Swab Kids, in collaboration with Los Superpoderes del Arte and Posca Markers, joins forces to stimulate the creativity of the youngest art lovers and promote, in parallel, meetings between artist fathers and mothers to have open conversations about family reconciliation through artistic practice and the use of colour.
Thus, consolidated as a platform for discovering new voices in contemporary art, Swab Barcelona will present an edition that will be the meeting point for galleries, artists, and art lovers from all over the world.
General Program:
ADN Galeria, Barcelona
Ana Mas Projects, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat
C+N Canepaneri, Milan
Chela Mitchell Gallery, Washington
Dilalica, Barcelona
Emerson Dorsch, Miami
Espacio Mínimo, Madrid
Galería Llamazares, Gijon
Galería Pigment, Barcelona
Galeria Fran Reus, Palma de Mallorca
Galeria Senda, Barcelona
Galeria Zielinsky, Barcelona
Galerie Romero Paprocki, Paris
Galerie Supermarkt, Tokyo
Galerie3, Vienna
Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio, Milán
Galleria Six, Milan
Galerie PJ, Metz
Jason Shin Gallery, Seoul
Jorge Lopez Galería, Madrid
Karpuchina Gallery, Prague
Krupa Gallery, Wrocław
Lab 36, Barcelona
L21 Gallery, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat / Palma
Mobius Gallery, Bucarest
NAC Galería, Santiago de Chile
Pabellon4 Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires
Palmadotze, Santa Margarida i Els Monjos
Photoport, Bratislava
Proyecto Arte, Los Angeles
Rafael Pérez Hernando, Madrid
Raffaella De Chirico, Turin
Set Espai d’Art, Valencia
Smolka Contemporary, Vienna
Shazar Gallery, Napoles
Vangar, Valencia
Emerging:
Arniches, Madrid
CAVE-AYUMI, Tokyo
Natasha Arselan Gallery, London
Regular Normal, New York
SISSI Club, Marselle
Swivel Gallery, New York
Vunu Gallery, Košice
Emerging LATAM, curated by Santiago Gasquet:
Galería del Paseo, Punta del Este / Lima
Lolita Pank, Mexico City
Subsuelo, Rosario
Yavar, Santiago
Focus South and East of the Mediterranean:
Mixer, Istanbul
Rhizome, Algeria
Sanatorium, Istanbul
Salehbarakat Gallery, Beirut
Talo Galeria, Cuenca
Swab Seed:
Duplex Air, Lisboa
Hyacinth Gallery, New York
Lí Gallery, Shangai and Hong Kong
Mouches Volantes, Cologne
NVS, Lisboa
Proyecto Caimán, Guadalajara
The White, Tokio
Dràcul·la, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat
Halfhouse, Barcelona
Pas une Orange, Barcelona
Tangent Projects, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat
Swab Reading:
Highchair Editions, London
Monorhetorik, Amsterdam
Rafael Melendez, London
Swab on paper:
Anne Laudel, Istanbul
Solo Show: Onur Hastürk Shebam, Leipzig
Solo show: Barbara Lüdde OGallery, Tehran
Solo Show: Maryam Mohry
My First Art Fair:
Armenia Studio, Milan
Kokanas, Marselle
LUPO, Milan
Ephemeral:
Biel Llinàs, Fabra i Coats
Natalia Dominguez, La Escocesa
Paula García-Masedo, Hangar
Violeta Mayoral, Hangar