David B. Smith Gallery

Joel Swanson works with words; He is an artist and writer who explores the idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies of language. His work critically subverts the technologies, materials, and structures of language to reveal the dynamics of power inherent within words. He makes public sculptures, online digital works, and conceptually oriented installations that playfully and powerfully question words and their meanings.

Swanson is an assistant professor in the ATLAS Institute and the Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics & Society at the University of Colorado Boulder where he works and teaches at the intersection of language and technology. He holds a courtesy appointment in the Intermedia Arts Writing and Performance PhD Program. He received his Masters of Fine Art at the University of California, San Diego with a focus in Computing and the Arts.

His artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions including The Banff Centre for the Arts, The Broad Museum in Lansing, The Power Plant in Toronto, the Glucksman in Cork Ireland, and the North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2014 Swanson had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. In 2017 he showed work in Personal Structures, an official satellite show of the 57th Venice Biennale.

He is represented by David B. Smith Gallery in Denver.