Swab Barcelona announces the 70 galleries taking part in its 17th edition

Swab, the International Contemporary Art Fair of Barcelona, which will hold its 17th edition from October 3rd to 6th 2024, announces the 70 galleries that will participate in this new edition. 

Swab Barcelona, with a carefully curated programme that combines established galleries with younger galleries, acts as a platform for experimentation of emerging artistic proposals. True to its idiosyncrasy, the fair maintains a human scale, a friendly spirit, and prioritizes the quality and diversity of its programme. The selection committee, the collaborating curators and the fair's management are committed to the freshest and most current proposals on the national and international scene, giving visibility to young, innovative projects and integrating new spaces into the art circuit. An example of this is My First Art Fair, supported by the Swab Barcelona Foundation, a programme that awards grants to three galleries less than two years old, giving them the opportunity to participate for the first time in an art fair. This results in a fair showcasing new trends in contemporary art globally.

The Swab 2024 selection committee is made up of curators and artistic directors Omar López Chahoud, from the Untitled Miami fair, Jérôme Pantalacci, from the French Art-o-Rama fair, Isa Natalia Castilla, from the Material Fair in Mexico City, Domenico de Chirico, independent curator, and collectors José Luis Lorenzo, Marie Elena Angulo, Jesper Stieler, Pedro Jaile and Laura Peh. 

For the second year and after the good reception of the last edition, Swab will be held at the Textile Pavilion of Fira de Barcelona, located at Av. Rius i Taulet, 10. Located at the site of the former Palace of the Textile Art of the 1929 Barcelona Universal Exhibition, the pavilion of industrial aesthetics has more than 3000m² that will occupy the entire fair.

The vibrant Asian art scene at Swab 2024

In this edition, the fair focuses on the effervescent East Asian art scene. The city of Taipei, a benchmark in the contemporary scene, is the protagonist in two programmes at Swab Barcelona: SOLO Show, inaugurated last year in collaboration with the Fundació Vila Casas, will connect the realities and contexts of Barcelona and Taipei with the presentation of four independent projects from each city. A programme curated by Yipei Lee (Taipei) and Carla Gimeno Jaria (Barcelona), and entitled The Color Blue from My Sky. 

The Video Box programme, aimed at video art and supported by the Swab Barcelona Foundation, will present four artists from the Taipei region. Curated by Yipei Lee (Taipei) and entitled Intimacy: The Moments of Social Skin, it delves into the intangible forces of geopolitics, gender, power and culture that have shaped contemporary Taiwanese social development since the 1990s. 

Both programmes seek to bear witness to the creative dynamism and artistic effervescence of the Taipei region, a meeting point and reference point for the growing community of digital artists, and a region that emanates innovation.

The Focus Tokyo - Seoul programme, curated by the artist Kelvin Kyung Kun Park (Seoul), brings together the artistic perspectives of exhibition spaces in both cities, cities in constant transformation and which uniquely intertwine tradition, future and nationalism. Under the title Tentacles of Thought (From an Octopus), the section presents a selection of 6 Korean and Japanese projects that will showcase their cultural influences and their diverse interpretations and artistic visions.

Swab 2024 Exhibitors

Swab 2024 will feature 70 contemporary art galleries, 23 from Spain and 47 from 20 countries in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. In addition, Swab 2024 will feature the participation of 200 artists.

General Programme

The General Programme, the central pillar of the fair, includes national and international galleries with a notable trajectory in the contemporary art circuit. This year, the programme will feature 34 galleries.

4710 Contemporary Art Gallery (Tbilisi), a-topos' (París, Marsella), Abbozzo Gallery (Toronto), ADN (Barcelona), Alessandro Albanese (Milán), ATM (Gijón), Beta Contemporary (Barcelona), BLOOM (Düsseldorf), CHAxARTxRTM (Rotterdam), Contemporary Cluster (Roma), Dilalica (Barcelona), ESCAT GALLERY - Casa Granados (Barcelona), ethall (L’Hospitalet), Galería Fermay (Palma de Mallorca), Galería Fran Reus (Palma de Mallorca), Kahmann Gallery (Naarden), LaiSun Keane (Boston), Noaddress (Río de Janeiro), Palmadotze (Santa Margarida i els Monjos), Pantocrator (Barcelona), Raffaela de Chiricco (Milán), Rafael Pérez Hernando (Madrid), Reiners Contemporary (Marbella), set espai d’art (Valencia), Shazar (Naples), Siddiq Projects (Hamburg), Sissi Club (Marsella), Soho Revue (Londres), Split + Neven (Londres), Stain (Palma de Mallorca), Tempesta (Milán), VANGAR (Valencia), Yafteh (Teheran) and Zielinsky (Barcelona/Porto Alegre). 

Swab Seed

The Swab Seed programme showcases 10 independent and self-managed spaces run by artists who share experimentation as a common denominator. A programme that gives visibility to new platforms and proposals that are shaking up the contemporary scene.

In this edition, the Seed Program will feature: AllArtNow (Damasco), CASA ESPACIO (Barcelona), Chilli Art Project (Londres), Juliana Sorondo (Barcelona), OLA Lab (Barcelona), NAAN Gallery (Tirana), Post Modern Collection (Amstelveen), Silica (Cannes), TAKEOVER (Beirut) and Tiny Art Gallery (La Haya).

My First Art Fair

The My First Art Fair programme presents three newly created galleries that have not yet participated in any international fair. The spaces are funded by the Swab Barcelona Foundation, with the aim of facilitating the entry of new voices on the international art circuit. 

PLATO (Évora), Studio/Chapple (Londres) and TUBE (Palma de Mallorca).

Performance 

In Swab 2024 the spaces Mármol Project and Terramoto Studio, from the city of Oporto, present a performance that will include activations designed to encourage a provocative and dynamic dialogue with visitors to the fair.

Curated programmes

Focus Tokyo - Seoul 

The project, curated by Kelvin Kyung Kun Park, brings together the artistic perspectives of 6 exhibition spaces in both cities: Gallery 2 (Seoul), Ingahee (Seoul), MATTER (Tokyo), MJK Gallery (Tokyo), ooooon (Seoul) and Willing N Dealing (Seoul).

Emerging LATAM 

The Emerging LATAM programme, curated by the Argentinean curator and artist Santiago Gasquet, co-director of the PIEDRAS gallery (Buenos Aires), includes 6 Latin American spaces with less than six years of trajectory, which are among the most promising in the Latin American contemporary scene.

The programme will feature: Andrea Brunson (Chile), Collectio (Chile), Crudo (Argentina), Escombro (México), Paseolab (Lima) and Tramo (Argentina).

SOLO Show by Vila Casas

The programme, promoted by the Fundació Vila Casas, was created with the aim of observing projects originating in Barcelona and its surroundings. This year, the programme is extending its links to include the city of Taipei, showcasinga dialogue between 4 galleries in Barcelona, curated by Carla Gimeno, and 4 galleries in Taipei, curated by Yipei Lee. 

Shishishibook (Taipéi), EQUAL™ (Taipéi), ss space space (Taipéi), SUAVEART (Taipéi), FASE (Barcelona), Halfhouse (Barcelona), Raccoon Projects (Barcelona) and espai 19 (Barcelona).

Video Box

The Video Box programme, dedicated to exploring different contexts through its audiovisual production, presents in this edition four Taiwanese artists, in a project curated by Yipei Lee. Under the title Intimacy:The Moments of Social Skin, the proposal delves into the intangible forces of geopolitics, gender, power and culture that have shaped contemporary Taiwanese social development. 

See the full list of galleries here.

Source: Teresa Vallbona