Art Historian.
Educator.
Critic.
ABOUT
I am an art historian, working at the intersection of modern and contemporary art, and studies of sexuality, gender, race and politics. I write about a broad array of contemporary art practices, including sculpture, installation, participatory art, painting and photography. I am currently halfway through writing a book on art and HIV/AIDS in the UK, and am Postdoctoral Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London from 2025-26.
My research and writing practice are guided by my belief that art offers the most expansive and extraordinary site for the envisioning and remaking of human potential and relationality. I am especially interested in survival, both how aesthetics and visual technologies enable psychic and political endurance for marginalised subjectivities, and how art might offer strategies and knowledge to enable us to survive impending species crisis. My method is grounded in psychoanalytic theories of subjectivity, as intersecting with cultural and historical materialism.
I have a BA (2009) in English from University College London, and an MA (2014) and PhD (2018) in History of Art from The Courtauld Institute of Art. I have recently completed a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in History of Art at the University of York (2022-25). I held prior teaching positions and postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Sussex (2018-19), The Courtauld (2019-20), Birkbeck College (2021-22), and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. (2020-22). I have published widely in scholarly journals and the art press.
Cette menace qui flotte a créé de nouvelles complicités, de nouvelles tendresses, de nouvelles solidarités - Hervé Guibert
PHOTOGRAPHY -
A QUEER HISTORY
AVAILABLE 29 FEBRUARY 2024
Photography - A Queer History examines how photography has been used by artists to capture, create and expand the category 'Queer'. It bookmarks different thematic concerns central to queer photography, forging unexpected connections to showcase the diverse ways the medium has been used to fashion queer identities and communities.
How has photography advanced fights against LGBTQ+ discrimination? How have artists used photography to develop a queer aesthetic? How has the production and circulation of photography served to satisfy the queer desire for images, and created transnational solidarities?
Photography - A Queer History includes the work of 84 artists. It spans different historical and national contexts, and through a mix of thematic essays and artist-centred texts brings young photographers into conversation with canonical images.
LAUNCH EVENTS
YORK, 6.30pm on Thursday 2 May 2024, at the University of York, including author in-conversation with James Boaden (Derwent College, D/N/056, followed by drinks in Vanbrugh College)
LONDON, Saturday 25 May 2024, at Reference Point, including author in-conversation with Amelia Abraham, talks with selected photographers from the book, and a DJ set from Fiona Anderson.
LONDON, Thursday 28 November 2024, at the Courtauld Institute of Art, including author in-conversation with Catherine Grant.
MANCHESTER, TBC.
PUBLICATIONS
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original print available here
Rebecca Wade’s introduction available here
OTHER WRITING
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