Catalina Swinburn Chilean, b. 1979

Born 1979. Santiago, Chile 

Catalina Swinburn’s practice translates key messages and universal concerns such as sustainability, identity, gender equality, and globalization, underlining historical connections across the Global South. Through the use of weaving, vintage documents, her woven sculptures function as a vital and dynamic language for raising awareness both physically and conceptually, while strengthening integration between various communities by referencing female resilience. She seeks to rescue ancestral rituals linked to sacred places, ancestral geography, and original memory; regenerating these narratives articulates both a sense of urgency and a mode of resistance. Her artworks are activated through her position as both fabricator and performer, where sculpture and performance converge as a metaphor for resistance, and woven narratives emerge as a substitute for the historical silence imposed on women. Grounded in textiles as eloquent expressions of women’s engagement with cultural tradition and transmutation, her practice draws from studies of gender, social identity, exchange, and modernization, using weaving as a vehicle of consciousness that bridges conservatism and innovation, continuity and transformation.  

She received a BA in Fine Arts from the Catholic University of Chile. 

Swinburn’s work has been shown in several international institutions, including Centro Cultural Matta, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de la Inmigración, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Mapi Museum, Montevideo, Uruguay; Museo de la Universidad de Antioquia & Museo de la Universidad de Medellin, Medellin; Monnaie du Paris, Pairs, France; MAC Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago de Chile, Chile; MAVI Museo de Artes Visuales, Santiago de Chile, Chile. 

Her works can be found in many prestigious collections of art, including Pilar Citoler Foundation, Cordoba, Spain; Fondation Thalie Collection, Brussels, Belgium; Balanz Capital collection, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Latin American Art Collection Artnexus, Bogotá Colombia; CCu Art Collection, Santiago de Chile, Chile; ICC Contemporary Institue of Culture, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Arte Al Dia Collection, Miami, U.S.A; Rosenblum Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Permanent Public Intervention, Vitacura Parks, Santiago de Chile, Chile.