Lives and works in Denver and Boulder, Colorado
Joel Swanson is an artist and writer whose work chiefly explores the failings and glitches of linguistic systems. His work critically subverts the technologies, materials, and underlying structures of language to reveal its idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies. His work ranges from interactive installations to public sculptures 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 such as 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.
