The 3-Year Art Program at Metàfora
The team of in-house-tutors is supplemented by a large number of prestigious artists, specialized professionals, writers, art historians and curators with international exposure. The tutors at Metàfora form part of teaching/investigation staff at universities and cultural platforms, and constantly invite our students to take part in symposiums, debates and talks, even outside school.
Metàfora is an important player on the art and cultural scene of Barcelona. We participate in art festivals such as LOOP and Tallers Oberts, and work with a range of independent spaces.
We collaborate with many artists as well as galleries and art institutions such as MACBA, Fundació Tàpies, HomeSession, Bombón Projects, Àngels Barcelona ….
Jette Bjerg
Program Director
Passionate about Contemporary Art and alternative educational structures, Jette Bjerg is a founding member of Metàfora, and has directed the Studio Arts programs since its beginning in 1999. Jette studied Fine Art and Art History, BA(Hons) at Goldsmiths College in London and Art and Communication, MA, at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen
Gabriel Virgilio Luciani
Head of Studies
Curator and head writer of the contemporary art magazine exibart.es. Gabriel is originally from the United States but has been anchored in Barcelona for the past 10 years realizing theory, curatorial and analytical projects. Interests include: sound, texture, vibration, objects, affectivity, corporeity, queer theory, speculative fiction, sexuality, sensuality, erotics, objectology, object-oriented ontology, and mystery amongst others.
They have curated at La Cera 13, Tangent Projects, TKM Room, L&B gallery, Galeria H2O, l’Escola Massana and àngels barcelona espai 2 as well as the ArtNou festival for emerging art, and Loop video-art festival.
Teachers, Tutors and other Collaborators
The team of in-house-tutors is supplemented by a large number of prestigious artists, specialized professionals, writers, art historians and curators with international exposure. The tutors at Metàfora form part of teaching/investigation staff at universities and cultural platforms, and constantly invite our students to take part in symposiums, debates and talks, even outside school.
Metàfora is an important player on the art and cultural scene of Barcelona. We participate in art festivals such as LOOP and Tallers Oberts, and work with a range of independent spaces.
We collaborate with many artists as well as galleries and art institutions such as MACBA, Fundació Tàpies, HomeSession, Bombón Projects, Àngels Barcelona ….
Anna Irina Russell
In-house Tutor
Anna Irina Russell [1993] is an artist based in Barcelona. She holds a MA in Sound Art and a BA of Arts (UB). She is part of Radio Web Macba Working Group, and has been a long term resident in Hangar. She has recently won Miquel Casablancas 2022 award and has shown her work at Écart [Canada], Bombon Projects [Bcn], MACBA, La Casa Encendida [Madrid], Blueproject Foundation [Bcn], Salón [Madrid], CCCB, Westwerk [Hamburg], among others.
Michael Lawton
In-house Tutor / Critical Theory
Dr. Michael Lawton was born in Sheffield in 1980. He studied Fine Art at Leeds Metropolitan University and Chelsea College of Art & Design before completing a practice-based PhD at the University of Kent in 2019. He has shown his paintings recently in 38b Projects (London), SWAB Art Fair (Barcelona), and Yellow (Varese). As well as trying to self-publish one book a year he has recently had texts published in The Happy Hypocrite, Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, and The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing. He moved to Barcelona in 2017, where he undertook the Guest Researcher’s Residency at MACBA Study Centre in 2018 as well as starting the long-stay (two year) residency in Hangar Centre for Art Research and Production in the same year.
Marc Larré
In-house Tutor
Marc Larré studied Fine Arts, first at the University of Barcelona and later at The Cooper Union in New York. He is now represented by the Barcelona based gallery Estrany de la Mota. Marc has recently won prizes such as Fundación BBVA 2015 (Video Art), Miquel Casablancas 2014 (runner-up), Barcelona, and BCN Producció 2013, Barcelona.
Laura Llaneli
In-house Tutor
Music Studies and Diploma in Graphic Design. BA in Fine Arts and Master Degree in Sound Art, Universitat de Barcelona .
Premi Miquel Casablancas 2018, Premi Embarrat 2017 and Barcelona Producció 2014.
Exhibitions at Casaplan (Valparaíso, Chile), Swinton & Grant (Madrid), ADN Platform, Espai 2-Galeria Àngels, MMSU (Croatia), Art3 (France), Lo Pati and Fundació Antoni Tàpies among others.
Oriol Texidor
In-house Tutor
Artist and director of the studio Arquitectura Plàstica
Oriol is a Catalan sculptor specialized in artistic interventions in architecture.
Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), BA Architecture
Gabriel Virgilio Luciani
In-house Tutor and Recent Art History Teacher
Curator and head writer of the contemporary art magazine exibart.es. Gabriel is originally from the United States but has been anchored in Barcelona for the past 10 years realizing theory, curatorial and analytical projects. Interests include: sound, texture, vibration, objects, affectivity, corporeity, queer theory, speculative fiction, sexuality, sensuality, erotics, objectology, object-oriented ontology, and mystery amongst others.
They have curated at La Cera 13, Tangent Projects, TKM Room, L&B gallery, Galeria H2O, l’Escola Massana and àngels barcelona espai 2 as well as the ArtNou festival for emerging art, and Loop video-art festival.
Ruben Verdú
Recent Art History and Critical Theory
Ruben Verdú is an artist, researcher and writer on Contemporary Art.
He received a BFA from the University of Texas, an MFA from CalArts and is an alumnus of the Whitney Independent Studio Program. His work has been exhibited at MoCA Los Angeles, at MoMA New York, at the Contemporary Art Space Osaka (CASO) and, in general, also throughout Europe and Latin America. He lives and works in Barcelona where he is the recipient of a BCN Producció award.
Helen Torres
Queer Theory teacher
Helen Torres is a social scientist, translator, writer and educator. She focuses on the articulation between language, arts and politics. She works as an independent researcher giving seminars and lectures and facilitating workshops.
Informed by Donna Haraway, whom she has translated into Spanish, she has developed a theoretical framework on women with functional diversity, geolocated sound narratives, interactive installations, collective books and speculative writings.
Cory Scozzari
Teacher
Scozzari’s work more generally looks at issues around identity politics, power relations, violence and sex.
He is the founder and director of Cordova, a curatorial project initiated in 2016 in Vienna, currently located in Barcelona. From 2015-2017 he worked as assistant curator at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. He was a founding member and co-director of Jupiter Woods, London/Vienna from 2014–16.
He received his BFA in photography from SCAD in 2010 and a MFA in curating at Goldsmiths in 2015. Recent exhibitions include: Holly White: ORANGE WORLD at Cordova in Barcelona, and Crater by Miguel Fernández de Castro and Lydia Ourahmane at Veda in Florence.
http://cordova.world
Agustín Ortiz Herrera
Teacher, WRKSHP
Agustín Ortiz Herrera’s artistic practice is developed in the fields of audiovisual, performance and installation. He uses these media to activate the queer perspective in a patriarchal-colonialist context nurtured by the dominance of audiovisual persuasion and the normative representation of memory.
His recent exhibitions and collaborations include the Center d’Art Santa Mónica, La Escocesa-CREAF, CCCB, The Green Parrot, Center d’Art Maristany, Barcelona Loop Festival, Hangar Public Program, La Capella/Barcelona Producció and Uppsala Konsert & Kongress to name a few. In 2021 his work “Fungi Fantasy and their friends Crazy Bacteria” was acquired by the MACBA collection.
Lucía Piedra Galarraga
In-house Tutor, Critical Theory
Teacher, curator and researcher. Based between Havana and Barcelona.
She trained in the MACBA Independent Studies Program with a master’s degree in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature. She is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Institute of Culture of Barcelona, ICUB.
She is interested in addressing postcolonial / decolonial theories and feminisms and how the black body is legislated and represented as an underlying and extended model of submission; by the construction of social grammars in relation to the topographies of thought; by the multiple colonial-postcolonial-
www.luciapiedragalarraga.com
Arash Fayez
In-house tutor
MA Fine Arts from California College the Arts, San Francisco, BA architecture, Tehran.
Arash Fayez has exhibited/performed at venues such as Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Musée du quai Branly, Paris; the British Museum, London; the Wattis Institute, CA; MACBA and La Virreina Centro de la Imagen, Barcelona.
Collaborating institutions
The International Workshop collaborates with a large list of public and private institutions in Barcelona. Among them are:
- Àngels Barcelona · www.angelsbarcelona.com
- Fundació Antoni Tàpies: www.fundaciotapies.org/
- Bombón Projects Gallery: www.bombonprojects.com
- Arte Aurora: www.arteaurora.com/
- BAR project: www.barproject.net
- ADN Galería · www.adngaleria.com
- Galería Taché · www.carlestache.com
- Home Session · www.homesession.org
- MACBA · www.macba.cat
External Tutors
The students on the 3rd year of Metàfora’s Studio Arts Programs work intensely on their personal project the last months of their stay. This project is exhibited in one of Barcelona’s most prestigious galleries “Àngels Barcelona (Espai 2)” and presented publicly in a presentation at Fundaciò Tàpies.
During these last months, the students are paired with external tutors, artists, curators or cultural agents who share affinities and interest in their investigation.
Eulàlia Rovira
External tutor
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Eulàlia Rovira has a degree in Fine Arts and a master’s degree in Art in Context from the UdK-Berlin. Her practice follows the foundations that structure western rectitude and how they slowly petrify in bodies and language.
She has recently exhibited at Twin Gallery (Madrid), Capella de Sant Roc (Valls), La Panera Art Center (Lleida), M|A|C (Mataró), Maristany Art Center (Sant Cugat) and Injuve’s Sala Amadís (Madrid).
Since 2013 she collaborates with the artist Adrian Schindler. Together they have exhibited at the Musée de Bibracte (Saint-Léger-sur-Beuvray, FR), Sala Muncunill (Terrassa), Homesession and Fireplace (Barcelona), and in group exhibitions or screenings such as Galerie Martin Janda (Vienna), àngelsbarcelona, EtHall (l’Hospitalet), Turf Projects (Croydon, UK), Montehermoso Cultural Center (Vitoria), ZKU – Center for Art and Urbanistics (Berlin) and La Escocesa (Barcelona). In 2018 they were awarded with the Fundació Güell Visual Arts Grant.
eulaliarovira.info
Paula Bruna
External Tutor
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Paula Bruna holds a PhD in Fine Arts (University of Barcelona), a master’s degree in ecology (Autonomous University of Barcelona), and she graduated in fine arts and environmental science. From her double perspective as an environmentalist and an artist, Paula uses artistic research as a form of knowledge in which different disciplines are hybridized. Recently, she investigated a re-interpretation of the Anthropocene story from a non-human point of view through a combination of science, fiction, and art. https://paulabruna.com/
Serafín Álvarez
External tutor
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Serafín Álvarez is an artist and researcher born in León (Spain) and now lives and works in Barcelona.
His work focuses on popular media depictions of subjective experiences mediated by technological and scientific developments, specially changes in the perception of reality. His most recent projects develop heterogeneous approaches to various aspects of science fiction, specially how concepts associated with otherness and the journey into the unknown are represented in contemporary audiovisual media such as cinema and video games, through work methodologies that reproduce certain creative practices commonly used by fan audiences of the genre.
He has a BA and a MA from the University of Barcelona, where he is currently doing a research project on transmedia expansion of science fiction as part of his PhD. He has shown his work at centres such as Asakusa (Tokyo), CA2M (Móstoles), CAC (Vilnius), Junefirst Gallery (Berlin), MACBA (Barcelona), MUSAC (León), La Panera (Lleida) and Trafó (Budapest) amongst others.
Apart from his artistic and academic practices, other projects include Ona, an art educational program that he curates at Sant Andreu Contemporani; Gravitacions, an art educational project that he runs at Fundació Joan Miró’s Espai 13; and Sons de Barcelona, a pedagogical project linked to the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University.
http://serafinalvarez.net
Aldo Urbano
External tutor
Aldo Urbano Perez has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona. In his work he creates enigmas whose ultimate meaning escapes him, especially himself. Through painting, he investigates the mechanisms of perception in search of a renovating experience, creating installations in which this type of experience may be possible. His work also drifts towards drawing and writing, with which he adopts narrative forms similar to comics in which irony and humour are present.
He has shown his work individually in exhibitions such as “El mismo color” (Bombon Projects, 2017), “Durante un experimento alrededor” (EtHall, 2018) or “Imitar el movimiento de un espejismo” (Galeria Balaguer, 2016), and has participated in collective projects such as the Composicions programme (together with Anna Dot, 2018), “Assumpte: una forta intuïció” (with Daniel Moreno, MNAC, 2018), “Falla” (with Ayelen Perenessi, Fundació Arranz Bravo, 2016), “El 85% de la matèria” (Centre d’Art Maristany, 2017) or “Tinta fresca” (Centre d’Art La Panera 2018). He has been selected to participate in artistic residencies such as Sandarbh Artist Residency (India, 2014) or Can Serrat (Catalonia, 2016), and his work has been recognized with the GAC Award to the emerging artist 2018, the Guasch Coranty Grant 2014 or the editing grant of the Sala d’Art Jove.
www.aldourbano.com
Joana Roda
External tutor
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Joana Roda studied Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona for 3 years and then left to study Art History at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, the Sorbonne IV in Paris and the Complutense in Madrid.
When she finished her degree, moved to Montreal, Canada, where she worked in a gallery and started looking for ways to make everything a little more profitable. One of them was to prepare catering based on potato omelettes and serve them at the openings (from there came some commissions for other artistic events). She also worked in a laundry, the Itacate restaurant and the Kilo Café bakery. All these works forged the entrepreneur she is now.
When she arrived in Barcelona, worked at the Biocenter restaurant and at the Miquel Alzueta Gallery and continued with the theme of food, collaborating with Bernat Daviu in the Forever Blowing Bubbles project, which offered catering for exhibition openings where art and food were linked.
As a result of Forever Blowing Bubbles, ‘Guanyar-se’ls Garrofes’ was born. The project was presented at the Miró Foundation and the MACBA (within the framework of the Antoni Miralda’s International) and was selected for the Loop Discover 2017 award. In 2016, together with Joana Llauradó, she was awarded the INJUVE grant for young creation with the exhibition programme ‘Bienvenido comisariado’ (Welcome to the Curatorship), which was presented at La Puntual in Sant Cugat and at Trapecio space in Madrid.
Between 2015 and 2018 she worked as coordinator of the programme of activities and exhibitions at the Maristany Art Centre in Sant Cugat and in February 2017 she opened with Bernat Daviu Bombon projects, in which she is currently working.
https://bombonprojects.com
David Bestué
External tutor
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David Bestué is an artist and writer, currently living between Madrid and Barcelona.
He is interested in the relationship between text, sculpture and architecture. His practice experiments with ideas from poetry, history, art, and architecture, testing the extent to which they can be investigated both literally and conceptually. Through small changes and everyday scenes, his works create absurd situations that question our conventions of behavior, and try to establish temporary and fragile connections between permanent forms and the presence of transitory elements, both human and intimate in space.
Among his solo exhibitions, ROSI AMOR (Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, 2017) and Realisme (La Capella, Barcelona, 2015) stand out. He has participated in group shows in New York (New York Public Library), Buenos Aires (Universidad Di Tella), Barcelona (MACBA), among others. Between 2003 and 2009 he developed Enric Miralles left and right and later Pure Formalism on twentieth century Spanish architecture. Both were published by Tenov. He has done residencies at Gasworks (London, 2010) and de_sitio (Mexico DF, 2013) and Kunsthalle Sao Paulo (Sao Paulo, 2016).
www.davidbestue.net
Alicia Kopf
External tutor
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Alicia Kopf is a Spanish author and artist based in Barcelona. She is interested in the concept of exploration, particularly polar exploration, which is visible throughout her work both as an artist and an author.
Kopf has a degree in Fine Arts and in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. She published her first book, ‘Maneres de (not) entrar casa’, in 2011 thanks to a Girona Kreas grant.
She has participated in many prestigious exhibitions. She presented the exhibition ‘Seal sounds under the floor’ in Barcelona and participated in group shows such as ‘Piso Piloto’ (CCCB 2015) or ‘Nonument’ (Macba 2014). Her awards include the GAC-DKV Prize for best young artist gallery exhibition, the Premi Documenta literary prize, and the Premi Llibreter awarded by booksellers. She currently works at the Open University of Catalonia as a lecturer in Communications.
Pilar Cruz
External tutor
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Pilar Cruz has a Degree in Art History and an official master’s degree in Advanced Studies in Art History from the Universitat of Barcelona, with a final project on ye-yé subculture and cinema. She is curator of exhibitions and cultural manager. He has worked in various institutions such as the Serralves Museum, MACBA or European Capital of Culture Porto 2001, and curated projects for, among others, CaixaForum, Sala d’Art Jove, Arts Santa Mònica, Can Felipa, Sant Andreu Contemporani, Sala Muncunill de Terrassa, Festival Periferias, or Espai 13 of the Fundació Miró… She was selected as a participating curator in the first edition of the Komisario Berriak (Capital of Culture San Sebastián 2016) curatorial laboratories. She was co-director, together with the anthropologist Marc Roig, of the Liminal GR series, which for 6 years programmed different artistic disciplines around common places of contemporary culture at the Antic Teatre. She likes hybrid projects, that’s why she set up Degénero editions (textile artists editions) together with Fito Conesa. She has been part of several juries for prizes and competitions such as the Art Nou Festival, Barcelona Crea Grants of the Barcelona City Council, or Barcelona Producció; and also writes art criticism and texts for catalogues and exhibitions.
Cruz is currently part of the curatorial team of the La Capella Art Center and works as an artistic advisor to the Temporals project, which brings exhibitions of contemporary art to a network of civic centres in Barcelona.
pilarcruzramon.wixsite.com/pilarcruz
Alexandra Laudó
External Tutor, Visiting Curator
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Alexandra Laudo is an independent curator based in Barcelona. She has collaborated as a curator with: Sant Andreu Contemporani (2013-2015), Sala d’Art Jove (2010-2011), Loop Festival (2009-2010), and in France, Italy, Sweden and Canadian Quebec. She regularly publishes works on contemporary art and culture for magazines and internet platforms such as B-guided, or A-desk. In 2016, she took part in a curatorial research program CuratorLab (Kontsfack University, Stockholm) during which she developed her lecture-performance titled An intellectual history of the clock.
Nuria Güell
External Tutor
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Nuria Güell (Vidreras, Gerona, 1981) is a Spanish visual artist recognized for her artistic projects of a political and social nature.
Nuria Güell graduated in Fine Arts in 2003 from the University of Barcelona. Later, she completed the last year of her degree in Visual Arts at the Superior Institute of Art, Havana, Cuba. In 2008-2009, she was part of the Behavioral Art Chair directed by Tania Bruguera at the same Higher Institute of Art La Habana, Cuba.
Hiuwai Chu
External Tutor
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Hiuwai is curator at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Prior to moving to Barcelona, she was an associate editor at the Aperture Foundation in New York.
She has a degree in Anthropology from Barnard College, Columbia University
Cory Scozzari
External tutor
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Cory Scozzari is a curator and artist.
Scozzari’s work more generally looks at issues around identity politics, power relations, violence and sex.
He is the founder and director of Cordova, a curatorial project initiated in 2016 in Vienna, currently located in Barcelona. From 2015-2017 he worked as assistant curator at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. He was a founding member and co-director of Jupiter Woods, London/Vienna from 2014–16.
He received his BFA in photography from SCAD in 2010 and a MFA in curating at Goldsmiths in 2015. Recent exhibitions include: Holly White: ORANGE WORLD at Cordova in Barcelona, and Crater by Miguel Fernández de Castro and Lydia Ourahmane at Veda in Florence.
http://cordova.world
Ignasi Aballí
External Tutor
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Ignasi Aballí was born in 1958 in Barcelona, where he lives and works.
Within the framework of conceptual art, Ignasi Aballí has developed a long history, which is currently recognized in the great contemporary art centers of the world.
His works have been exhibited, among others, at the Fundació Joan Miró, MACBA, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museu de Serralves in Porto, the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, the Drawing Center in New York, the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the 2007 Venice Biennale and in galleries and
art spaces in Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico, Belgium, Brazil or China.
Antoni Hervàs
External Tutor
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Antoni Hervàs studied fine arts at the University of Barcelona. Solo exhibitions include Hércules en la Luna, Kakanoures y Kitschades at the Galeria Sis, Sabadell, Galeria etHALL, Barcelona, El Misterio de Caviria, at La Capella, Barcelona, awarded with the Barcelona’s visual arts grant of 2016 and the ACCA prize for artistic Project of 2016) . Upcoming The Rubbery at 1646 Den Haag, NED.
Ludovica Carbotta
External Tutor
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Ludovica Carbotta (Turin, 1982) lives and works in Barcelona.
MA Fine Arts, Goldsmiths University, London.
Her work has been exhibited in personal and group shows at prestigious institutes in Italy and abroad. She is a co-founder of Progetto Diogene and of The Institute of Things to Come. She has received numerous awards, including the Menzione Speciale al Premio ITALIA (Museo MAXXI, Rome, 2016) and the Premio New York (ISCP/Columbia University, New York, 2018).
Chosen by Ralph Rugoff, curator of the 58th Venice Biennial, for the international exhibition in that city.
Francesco Giaveri
External Tutor
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Contemporary Art and Art Market specialist, teacher, researcher and curator.
Art History at Ca’ Foscari (Venice) and Advanced Studies Diploma, UCM (Madrid).
Professor at Universidad Nebrija and director of L21 Gallery; currently, Gallery Manager at ADN Galeria, Barcelona.
He has curated shows at Fundación LaCaixa, Museu del Disseny, Centro de Arte Alcobendas, Sala de Arte Joven, Salón, Galleria Macca, Josédelafuente, Instituto Francés Madrid, Espacio F, Espacio Trapézio, ADN Platform, Piramidón and Galeria Marta Cervera. Published texts in journals and magazines such as Revista de Arte Goya, BCN Més, Revista Quintana, YUCA, Anales de Historia del Arte, Barcelonés, Abre el Ojo, Flux News and art.es, among others.
Luis Guerra
External Tutor (former In-house Tutor)
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Luis is a visual artist and philosopher.
PhD. in Art and Philosophy at Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.
Visiting Researcher at CfAR Centre for Artistic Research, The University of the Arts Helsinki. Resident Researcher at BAU Design College of Barcelona.
Kone Foundation Grantee 2020, Resident Fellow 2020 at the Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki, Finland, Saastamoinen Foundation. Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Barcelona, Spain.
In 2017 he was an artist in residency at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona, and artist in research at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía de Madrid, 2015-2016.
Anna Pahissa
External Tutor, Visiting lecturer (Critical Theory)
Anna is the founder of "Múltiplos", a former artist publication book store based in Barcelona specialized in the dissemination and distribution of artist books created in Spain, Portugal and Latin America.
Coordinator of the "Art Nou" festival for young artists at the association of Barcelona Galleries, team member of the "Manifesta 8" festival, former coordinator at the artist residency Can Serrat.
Ramus Nilausen
External Tutor, Visiting Artist
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MA Fine Art (Distinction), Chelsea College of Art and Design,
BA Fine Art, Faculty of Fine Art, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
Works as a practicing artist in Barcelona.
Galería Alegría, Madrid.
Uxval Gochez
External tutor
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Art dealer, filmmaker and founder of Arte Aurora Galeria.
Though intense exhibition activity and participation in many of the city‘s events, Uxval keeps a finger on the pulse of most of Barcelona’s emerging art scene.
Susanna Corchia
External tutor
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Independent curator with years of experience as gallery manager for one of Barcelona’s most prestigious galleries "ADN".
Currently Susanna occupies the post as director of Barcelona Gallery Weekend.
Gantuya Badamgarav
External tutor
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Founding Director of Mongolian Contemporary Art Support Association and 976 Art Gallery.
Gantuya was the first Commissioner of Mongolia at the Venice Biennale. She has a background in business, international project management, and economic policy.
Visiting artists, curators and cultural agents.
Metàfora takes pride in collaborating with artists and curators who are intensely involved with Barcelona as well as the international art scene. The result is that our students to get to work with artists who are busy with professional activities and cutting-edge events in the most important art institutions of Barcelona. Sometimes this also means that their passage though Metàfora is necessarily brief, due to travel plans, artist residences around the world, exhibition activities, PhD studies in other countries etc.
Here is an overview of some of them:
Bernat Daviu
Visiting Artist (former in-house tutor)
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Bernat is a visual artist and cultural activist in Barcelona.Founder of the project space Passatge Studio as well as the very successful project Bombón Gallery, Bernat studied Fine Arts in Central Saint Martin’s in London,
UK.
Xavier Acarin
Visiting Curator
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Xavier Acarín Wieland is a curator interested in material performativity, urban studies, and exhibition histories. His projects have been presented at Elastic City, Chez Bushwick, Peekskill Project 6, the Abrons Arts Center, ESTE Gallery, Knockdown Center, Wendy’s Subway, ISCP and PS122 Gallery in New York, La Ira de Dios in Buenos Aires, HIAP and Muu Gallery in Helsinki, and the Mies van Der Rohe Foundation, Reial Cercle Artístic, Caixaforum and Galería ADN in Barcelona. He has written texts for exhibitions for Galería Jorge López, Centre d’Art Tecla Sala, P.A.D. Gallery, Galería Rosa Santos, and Participant Inc.
Ángela Palacios
Former in-house-tutor
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Ángela transits a hybrid artistic practice that encompasses and connects collaborative and cultural mediation projects, drawing and painting as a medium and technology, self-management of artist-run projects, artistic research and teaching. Since 2015, much of her work in the artistic and cultural sector has been developed through the collectives Larre (together with Priscila Clementti and Lara Garcia Diaz, since 2018), and Fireplace (with Quim Packard, from 2015 to 2019). Ángela is currently a member of the board of the Assembly Platform of Artists of Catalonia (PAAC).
angelapalacios.net
Ariadna Guiteras
Visiting Artist (former in-house tutor)
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Ariadna Guiteras works with performance, installation and drawing to take from a political and visceral approach on bodies and the relationships that form them. In her latest works, the idea of a monster made of other bodies, like the one in the gothic novel Frankenstein, has been a recurring motif from which to think about the multiplicity of relationships that make up a body, relationships like the ones we have with intestinal microbiota, political haste, milk, oil, and, since she first gestated, the relationships between (m)other and child.
She has been artist-in-residence at Gasworks (London), La Escocesa and Hangar (Barcelona). Her work has been shown in different venues and festivals such as Kosmopolis (CCCB, Barcelona), The Bower (London), CentroCentro (Madrid), SACO (Tenerife), 11th Leandre Cristòfor Biennial (La Panera, Lleida), MIAC (Lanzarote), La Capilla (Barcelona), APA (Brussels), CA2M (Madrid), San Andreu Contemporani (Barcelona), Antiguo Teatro (Barcelona) and MACBA (Barcelona). The work "Todo este drama de la ideología y el amor" is part of the MACBA collection.
www.ariadnaguiteras.com
Oriol Fontdevila
Visiting Lecturer (Critical Theory)
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As an Art Critic and Curator, Oriol has been part Metàfora’s team covering different aspects of Critical Theory over the past years.
In 2022, Oriol is the curator of the Catalan exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia.
Oriol was part of the management team of Sala D‘Art Jove of Catalunya since 2007. He has curated projects at most of the important art institutions in Barcelona.
In 2018 he published the book El arte de la mediación (The Art of Mediation), which was completed after a research grant held by Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid).
www.oriolfontdevila.net
Ely Daou
Visiting Artist (former in-house-tutor)
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Ely Daou is a visual, conceptual and performance Artist based in between Barcelona and Berlin. MA Architecture, University-Fine Art institute, Beirut. Premi Miquel Casablancas, Barcelona 2016.
Ely’s work has been exhibited and performed in different venues across Europe, such as Kanal-Centre Pompidou (Brussels), Casa Incendida (Madrid), Buffer Fringe (cyprus), Startptelpa (Riga, Latvia), the CCCA (Sant Boi De Llobregat), SWAB International Art Fair 2015(Barcelona), La Raffinerie (Brussels), Centrale Fies LiveWorks, (Dro, Italy), Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart) and Espai 2-Angels gallery (Barcelona) among others.
www.elydaou.com
Jo Milne
Visiting Artist (former in-house-tutor)
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Jo Milne is a visual artist, who works between Barcelona and Edinburgh. Fine Art and History of Art (MA Hons), Edinburgh University Printmaking (MA), Camberwell College of Art Teaching experience includes Winchester School of Art, Kent Institute for Art and Design, MASS Art in Boston and the Europäische Kunstakademie Trier, EINA, Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art in Barcelona.
www.jomilne.com
Sinéad Spelman
Visiting Artist (former in-house-tutor)
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Visual Artist residing in Barcelona since 2007. Co-founded the project-space Halfhouse 2009. She has studied in the National University of Ireland, Galway (BA), the programme for independent studies in the MACBA and at EINA.
Sinéad is represented by the Barcelona gallery EtHall and has shown work in spaces such as Fundació Suñol, Galeria Alegria and Fabra i Coats.
Marc Vives
Visiting Artist (former in-house-tutor)
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Marc Vives is an installation artist, event-creator, video-maker, based somewhere between the Basque country and Barcelona. Co-founder of Radiobucket and GRAF
His works has been shown at Biennale di Venezia, MACBA, Caixaforum and art coordinator of Nau Estruch (Sabadell).
Olivier Collet
Visiting Curator and teacher for 2nd-3rd level
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Olivier is an active agent in Barcelona’s art world. He is the artistic Director at Joan Prats Gallery, previously of CYAN Gallery.
Olivier is also cofounder of the prestigious artist residence "Homesession".
Martí Ansón
Visiting Artist and teacher for 2nd-3rd level
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Martí Anson is the president of the Private Foundation Association of Visual Artists of Catalonia (AAVC), which manages Hangar Center for Visual Arts Production and Research (Barcelona).
Works with galleries such as Estrany-de la Mota, Toni Tàpies and has shown work locally and internationally for a number of years.
Luz Broto
Visiting Artist (former in-house-tutor)
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Luz Broto graduated in Fine Art and obtained her Diploma in Advanced Studies from the doctorate programme in ‘Art in the Digital Era. Intermediate Creation’, at the University of Barcelona. As an important young figure on Barcelona’s art scene, she has developed specific projects for many different contexts.
David Bestué
Visiting Artist
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Betué has been part of the Bestué-Vives artist collaboration, with whom he exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2009.
His work plays with various formats such as sculpture, video and photography.
Individual exhibitions at García Galería de Madrid at the exhibition La España Moderna, La Capella de Barcelona, Gasworks in London in 2010, Arkitekturmuseet in Stockholm, Sala Montcada in Barcelona, or the Reina Sofía Museum in 2017.
Pau Catá
Visiting lecturer (Critical Theory)
Pau Cata is the founder-director of CeRCCa and Co-coordinator of NACMM - North Africa Cultural Mobility Map and Platform HARAKAT. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Edinburgh College of Art. His work, published in several academic journals and part of multiple exhibitions, focuses on historiography, artistic research, epistemology, and the journey within the Euro-Med context.
Adrian Melis
Visiting Artist (former In-house Tutor)
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Adrian Melis is based between Cuba and Europe. He is a former resident at the Rijksakademie van Beldeende Kunsten of Amsterdam (2014/2015). In 2010 he graduated from the University of Art (ISA) in Havana, Cuba and between 2006/2008 participated at the Catedra of Behavioural Art directed by Tania Bruguera.
Since 2010 his work has been represented by ADN Galeria in Barcelona.
www.adrianmelis.net
Quim Packard
Visiting Artist (former in-house-tutor)
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Artist and cultural agent, Barcelona.
His most recent project is FirePlace a Cultural Agency, Residency and Cultural Space based in Barcelona.
Juan Canela
Visiting Curator (former in-house-tutor)
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Independent curator.
Co-founder of BAR International Residency Program, Radiobucket and Colectivo Azotea.
Part of the curatoratorial team behind major exhibition projects such as ARCO 2015/2016, Caixa Forum, Swab Barcelona, etc.
Francesc Ruiz
Visiting Artist
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(Barcelona, 1971)
Francesc works with drawings in the field of comics and cartoon and defines himself as an installation artist.
He has exhibited at the Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Spanish Pavillion at the Venice Biennale, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, MACBA Barcelona, Gasworks London, Contemporary Image Collective Cairo and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, among other places.
www.francescruiz.com