Joshua Schwebel is a Canadian artist. His conceptual work is developed out of site-specific research, and takes shape through dialogic interactions with his art-institutional hosts, examining how the institution sees itself in relation to its context, how this image is publicized, and how it is received in the local public. Through this open-ended process, Schwebel’s work adopts a form that singularly addresses the context in which it is situated.

Selected solo exhibitions and projects include: The Tenant, at Centre Clark (forthcoming, Montreal, 2021), The Employee, at Forest City Gallery (London, 2020-21), Receipt, at KW (Berlin, 2021), Solvent, at Or Gallery (Vancouver, 2019), and, A Dream in Which I Am You, at the Fonderie Darling (Montreal, 2018). Schwebel has held residencies at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), Rupert (Vilnius), Standards (Milan), among others, and is currently a participant in BPA // the Berlin Program for Artists.

At AiR 351 Schwebel will continue research into toponymy, which will comprise a series of site-specific works addressed to place naming. Part of a larger study of toponymy, the research in Portugal will examine the particular history of the Marrano Jews, seeking encrypted or historical place names that refer to a forgotten, denigrated, or concealed former Jewish presence. His focus will be on historical places that underwent a change of name, and how that previous name might circulate on the margins or in unofficial histories.

For the second part of his residency Josh worked within the project Affaires Étrangères/Negócios Estrangeiros, organised as part of the France-Portugal 2022 Season, a collaboration between AiR 351 and Art by Translation.

Residency dates:
07.2021-08.2021