I am a contemporary art historian, curator and researcher specialised in the intersection of art with visual activism and militarised force. I am interested in art and its relationship to diverse forms of state violence including socially detrimental urban overdevelopment and military counterinsurgency tactics, especially psychological operations. Conversely, I explore visual histories of interracial solidarity and develop revisionist and remedial curatorial formats for the presentation of art.

I was Hayward Exhibitions Curator (1999-2007), Modern Art Oxford Senior Curator (2009-10), Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art Co-Director (2007-2014), MCAD Manila Associate Director. Recent curatorial projects include 'The Surface of the World’ (MCAD, Manila, 2014-17); 'Spectres of Modernism: Artists Against Overdevelopment’ (Raven Row, London 2017-18) and 'Open Plan: Communities in Contemporary Art' (South London Gallery, 2022). I have worked with diverse visual arts organisations including Tate; Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge; Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris; and the Alytus Biennale (Lithuania). My monograph based on an AHRC funded study combining contemporary art history with security, intelligence, and media studies 'The Deployment of Art: The Imperial War Museum's Artistic Records Committee, 1968-1982’ is published by Routledge in 2025 in their Research in Art and Politics series.

I hold an MA (Hons) Art History, University of Edinburgh; MA Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art; Diploma Arts Management, University of London; and DPhil Contemporary Art History and Theory, University of Oxford.

Research interests and PhD supervision

I would welcome research students with interdisciplinary projects that address the intersections of contemporary art and curating, broadly defined, with one or more of these fields:

• Militarised conflict (especially insurgency and counterinsurgency after 1945)
• Political iconography and propaganda
• Built environment
• Interracial visual solidarity tactics
• State monitoring of artists
• Visual culture, the North of Ireland and contexts of colonialism
• Art and nation building

Teaching

I have extensive experience teaching at undergraduate, graduate, and MPhil/PhD levels as well as professional mentoring of emergent artists and curators. This falls into two broad areas: Practice-based teaching including: Managing exhibition projects and convening and co-convening curatorial practice workshops in partnership with external organisations including MCAD, Manila; Gwanju Biennale (with Okwui Enwezor); California College of the Arts; De La Salle College of the Arts, Singapore; Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing. Theory and history teaching covering the areas of: Curatorial Strategies; Art, Coloniality; Spatial Practices; Writing for Curators; Audiences; Art and Globalisation; Feminism and the Artist’s Body; Art from Latin America; Art and Conflict; Culture Wars and Contested Heritage.

Expertise and public engagement

With public engagement at the heart of my curatorial practice and academic research concerns my critically acclaimed curatorial projects have been exhibited at major institutions internationally. I have worked with numerous leading artists including Jeremy Deller; Elizabeth Price; Christian Boltanski; Ann-Sofi-Siden; Regina Jose Galindo; Sam Taylor-Johnson (Wood); Anthony McCall; Tacita Dean; John Gerrard; Chris Dorley-Brown; Apichatpong Weerasethakul ; Isaac Julien; Zhan Wang andThomas Hirchhorn.I have commissioned art for the public domain and managed complex community-orientated projects with multiple stakeholders. My interviews and reviews have been published in six different language including in La Vanguardia de Barcelona, The Art Newspaper, and artnet.com. I have appeared on British, Spanish, and French national and local tv and radio, including as a guest on BBC Start the Week and Newsnight talking about my curatorial work.

I am on the board of the peer reviewed journal MIRAJ (Moving Image Review and Art Journal) (Intellect).

Selected publications

• ‘The Deployment of Art: The Imperial War Museum’s Artistic Records Committee 1968-1982' (Abingdon: Routledge) (supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art Studies) (in production for publication spring 2025) (120,000 words; 150 illustrations)
• 'Open Plan: Communities in Contemporary Art' (co-edited with Carey Robinson)(London: South London Gallery, 2022) (in press) (110 pages)
• 'Ufuoma Essi: From Where We Land' (co-edited with Ufuoma Essi) (London: South London Gallery, 2022) (in press) (46 pages)
• 'The Surface of the World: Modern Architecture and the Moving Image' (Manila: Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, 2017) (126 pages)
• 'Stewart Home and Chris Dorley-Brown: The Age of Anti Ageing' (London: Vargas Publishing, 2014) (40 pages)