ANINAT GALERÍA

Santiago de Chile | Chile
Directors| Isabel Aninat & Javiera García - Huidobro

Aninat Galería is a Chilean contemporary art gallery founded by Isabel Aninat, a graduate of Philosophy and Aesthetics. In 1982, during the Pinochet dictatorship, she created a space that aims to generate a platform for debate, commercialization, and critical reflection on contemporary art and new media in Santiago, Chile.

www.aninatgaleria.org

ESTE FOCUS

Booth walkthrough with the artist
Germán Tagle

In Spanish, without translation.
Open to the public.

Date: TBD
Time: TBD
Venue: Pavilion VIK
Ruta 10, Km 182.5, José Ignacio

CURATORIAL VISION

For ESTE ARTE 2026, the 12th edition, Aninat Galería presents Germán Tagle’s project “Landscapes of Persistence”, a new series of paintings created especially for ESTE ARTE and the Uruguayan public. These works combine abstract atmospheres with fragmented images of trees and plants rendered through stencils—an ironic, urban device—to highlight the persistence of nature against human domestication. Chromatic sensations and organic silhouettes emerge and dissolve across dense layers of paint, generating environments that oscillate between camouflage, fiction, and invention. The series does not moralize but instead acknowledges the tension between inexhaustible natural energy and the traces of human presence. In these hybrid, ever-changing landscapes, time is cyclical, and the natural world endures beyond control, rendered with both tenderness and force.

BIO

Germán Tagle (Chilean, b. 1976) studied Architecture at Universidad Finis Terrae, Santiago, before beginning his artistic career in the early 2000s. In 2003 he traveled through New York and Argentina, settling in New York from 2005 to 2010, where he exhibited regularly. His solos New Empire (2009) and Eternal Return (2010) at Elga Wimmer PCC were milestones, and his inclusion in El Museo del Barrio’s biennial The (S) Files (2007) marked an early recognition of his practice. Since returning to Chile in 2010, Tagle has intensified his material investigations, layering acrylic paint onto canvases, book pages, and fabrics in dense, transformative surfaces. His imagery often stems from the toile patterns that first inspired him, reworked into gestural abstractions and hybrid landscapes that question history, memory, and the sublime. He has exhibited widely in Latin America, the U.S., and Europe, at platforms including Untitled Miami, ZONAMACO, ArtBO, and Estampa. His works belong to collections such as El Museo del Barrio (New York) and Colección Engel (Chile). Recent solo shows include Futuro Esplendor (2021) at Aninat Galería, followed by his second presentation with the gallery in 2024.

BIO

Catalina Swinburn (1979, Santiago de Chile) is a contemporary artist whose work explores themes of memory, identity, and displacement. Currently based in Buenos Aires and London, her practice spans a variety of media, including sculpture, installation, and video art. Swinburn’s work is known for its exploration of human experience through symbolic representations, blending elements of Latin American cultural history with global concerns.

She has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows worldwide, with notable solo exhibitions such as Revolutionary Myths at Hors Les Murs, Fitzrovia Chapel in London (2023), and Open Book at Plaza Chile in Buenos Aires (2022). Her work often challenges concepts of history, belonging, and the space between personal and collective memory. With a focus on the invisible forces that shape our understanding of the world, Swinburn’s pieces invite viewers to question how memory and perception influence our reality.

Her artworks are housed in prestigious collections, including the Petitgas Collection in London, the Pilar Citoler Foundation in Spain, and the Balanz Capital Collection in Argentina. Swinburn’s work remains at the intersection of contemporary art and social reflection, continuing to engage with issues of displacement and identity.

CURATORIAL

Catalina Swinburn's work confronts universal themes of sustainability, identity, gender equality, and globalization, emphasizing the historical connections of the Global South. Using textiles and vintage documents as dynamic mediums, Swinburn addresses both physical and conceptual awareness, highlighting female resilience and the strength of interconnected communities. Her practice draws upon ancestral rituals, sacred spaces, and original memories, restoring narratives that reflect an urgent need for cultural and historical regeneration.

In her sculptures, Swinburn’s role as both creator and performer activates the artwork, transforming it into a metaphor for resistance. The woven forms serve as a powerful response to the historical silencing of women, encapsulating their concerns with tradition, social identity, and cultural transformation. Through textiles, Swinburn articulates narratives that cross the boundaries of gender and cultural roles, reinforcing the fabric of both personal and collective memory.

By weaving, Swinburn proposes an alternative view of art, not only as a medium of aesthetic expression but also as a vehicle for consciousness. Her practice fosters a dialogue between the past and present, between tradition and innovation, positioning art as a means to challenge conservatism and promote transmutation—closer to our cultural identity and its possibilities for the future.