ADVISORY CIRCLE
Founder and Director of Swab Barcelona
Joaquin Diez-Cascón
Carolina Diez-Cascón
Members of the Advisory Board of Swab Barcelona
Omar López Chahoud
Isa Natalia Castilla
Jérôme Pantalacci
Marie Elena Angulo
Jesper Stieler
José Luis Lorenzo
Laura Peh
Álvaro López de Lamadrid and Nadia Hernández Henche
Juan Manuel Elizalde and Choli Fuentes
Domenico de Chirico
Santiago Gasquet
Benoît Doche de Laquintane
Berta Caldentey
Tobias Arndt
Swab Barcelona is a meeting point for new artistic communities and a platform for exchange that promotes critical dialogue among the different agents that comprise them.
Committed to building a more diverse and sustainable cultural environment, the fair explores new formulas for balancing emerging artistic creation, the market, and the institutional framework. This work originates through the participation of the fair’s Advisory Circle, made up of curators and collectors who share its mission. Coming from different fields and territories, the convergence of their perspectives consolidates Swab as a key space for imagining and putting into practice new infrastructures for the emerging art ecosystem, based on the autonomy, solidarity, and freedom of artistic practice.
Members of the Advisory Circle actively participate in identifying new methodologies, working formats, and support models aimed at emerging artists and the spaces through which their practices are articulated. Their involvement helps ensure that each edition of Swab maintains high standards of artistic quality while remaining open to the challenges and transformations of the present, strengthening its capacity to generate contexts for participation, discovery, and cultural exchange.
Founder and Director of Swab Barcelona
Joaquin Diez-Cascón: Joaquín Diez-Cascón, architect and founder of Swab Barcelona, the first art fair promoted by a private collector in the city. In parallel to his career in architecture, Diez-Cascón has developed an outstanding art collection, the Diezy7 Collection, focused on supporting emerging art. Internationally recognised for his commitment to contemporary art, in 2014 he was named by artnet as one of the 20 most innovative collectors in the world.
Carolina Diez-Cascón: director of Swab Barcelona. Trained in design at IED and in the art market and curating at institutions such as Sotheby’s and the Royal College of Art, she has an outstanding career in the field of contemporary art. She has produced installations and video works exhibited in spaces such as Arts Santa Mònica and CCCB, and co-directs Cantic Films, a production company focused on collective film projects with different communities. She also combines her role at Swab with teaching about the art market and curating at Catalan universities.
Members of the Advisory Board of Swab Barcelona
Omar López Chahoud. Independent curator based in New York. He was the artistic director and curator of Untitled Art (Miami) from its founding in 2012. He currently serves as the International Director of Y.ES Contemporary. As an independent curator, he has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions in the United States and internationally. He has also participated in curatorial discussion panels at Artists’ Space, Art in General, MoMA PS1, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
Isa Natalia Castilla. Co-founder and partner of Feria Material in Mexico City since 2014. In 2021, she opened the Castilla / Klyuyeva gallery in Monterrey and initiated Cuadrante, a cultural festival that promotes art, design and architecture in the same city.
Jérôme Pantalacci. Founder and director of ART-O-RAMA, a contemporary art fair in Marseille. He is an independent curator, notably through his collaboration with Roger Pailhas gallery and the Art Dealers fair.
Marie Elena Angulo. Art collector, patron of the Contemporary Art Society in London and member of the Board of Directors of Oolite Arts, one of the most relevant visual artists’ support organisations in Miami. She is also a lawyer specialising in financial matters.
Jesper Stieler. Publicist and founder of Stieler & Company, Jesper has a 35-year career as a collector and is a prominent member of the Danish Collecting Society. His professional career and business travels have immersed him deeply in the global contemporary art scene, with a particular interest in discovering and supporting emerging artists.
José Luis Lorenzo. art collector and member of the Latin American Art Acquisitions Committee at Tate Modern in London. Architect at Lorenzo y Asociados Arquitectos and president of DINA (Diseñadores Nacionales Asociados).
Laura Peh. is a novelist, founder of Cinnamon Art Publishing, and lives between Singapore and London. She has been collecting contemporary art since 2019 with a focus on socially engaged practices from Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Álvaro López de Lamadrid and Nadia Hernández Henche. Art collectors. In love with art, in 30 years they have amassed a collection of more than 100 pieces. Throughout these years, their collection has progressively evolved towards conceptual art, focusing on artists who use the photographic medium or video art.
Juan Manuel Elizalde and Choli Fuentes. Collectors and founders of the Kells collection, started in 1996. Their work has been characterised by a focus on emerging artists and a particular interest in photography.
Domenico de Chirico. Independent curator whose career stands out for his work as artistic director at fairs such as DAMA Fair in Turin and MIA Art Fair in Milan. His experience includes curating important exhibitions in multiple emerging galleries, establishing himself as a specialist in giving visibility to new voices in the contemporary art scene.
Santiago Gasquet. Independent curator. Co-director of PIEDRAS gallery, a self-managed space dedicated to the exhibition, production, and research of contemporary art in Buenos Aires. His curatorial practice focuses on developing projects that foster dialogue and intersections of experiences within the Latin American contemporary art scene, promoting new narratives and connections between artists, audiences, and institutions..
Benoît Doche de Laquintane. Collector, co-founder of Solaris, an artist residency program, and president of Fraeme. His private collection comprises more than two hundred works by French and international artists, some of which are on loan to museums such as the CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux or the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art.
Berta Caldentey. Collector of conceptual art with special emphasis on photography and video art. Conceived as a learning experience that integrates creator, viewer and context, it explores the relationship between human beings and space.
Tobias Arndt. Health lobbyist and patient advocate based in Brussels collects since more than 20 years with amongst other a focus on hispanic art. Tobias