Paul Gladston

Last updated

Paul Gladston (born 18 May 1964 in North Shields UK) is the inaugural Judith Neilson Chair Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. [1] He was trained at Edinburgh College of Art - BA (hons.) 1st Class, Drawing, Painting and Printmaking (1986) - and the University of Nottingham - Ph.D. Critical Theory (2004) and MA Critical Theory (1997).

Contents

The UNSW Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art (JNCCA) [2] leads an international network dedicated to research, advocacy and teaching in the field of contemporary art/cultural studies, with a particular emphasis on the Sinosphere (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and related diasporas) as well as East Asia more widely. The JNCCA is supported by a multi-million Australian dollar endowment gifted to UNSW by the philanthropist, gallery owner and collector of contemporary Chinese art Judith Neilson. [3]

Gladston was previously the Professor of Visual Cultures and Critical Theory (2015-2018) [4] and an Associate Professor in Culture, Film and Media (2010-2015) [5] [6] at the University of Nottingham, UK and, prior to that, the inaugural Head of the School of International Communications at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China [7] [8] .

He was the founding Head of the Institute of Comparative Cultural Studies (ICCS), at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China (2005-2010) and the founding Director of the Centre for Contemporary East-Asian Cultural Studies (CEACS), at the University of Nottingham, UK (2012-2018) [9] [10] . He was also the founding editor of the academic Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (Intellect) (2014-2017) [11] and is the founding editor of the scholarly book series Contemporary East Asian Visual Culture, Society and Politics (Palgrave Macmillan) (2020-present) [12] .

Gladston is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the journal Third Text (2023-present) [13] and was a Guest Professor at the London campus of Sotheby’s Institute of Art (2017) [14] .

Paul Gladston is better known in China by the style name 葛思谛 [15] .

Research

Gladston's [16] research and writing on Sinospheric contemporary art is recognized for its development of trans-cultural narratives informed by contemporary critical theory [17]

There has been published criticism of his work for its use of deconstructivist methodologies and unrelenting problematization of nationalist essentialist interpretations of Chinese and European/American cultural identity, including in a published exchange of articles with the Chinese art historian and curator Gao Minglu in the journal Yishu . [18] [19] [20]

Gladston's academic research, writing and curatorship over the last two decades has sought to counter such criticism by situating deconstructivist theory/practice and localized Chinese discourses in mutually transformative critical polylogues. [21] His most recent academic writing places Chinese contemporary art and visual culture in relation to historical relays of transculturality between Chinese and other cultures and the continuation of such relays under the multi-polar conditionalities of present-day post-Cold War contemporaneity. [22] His work has been translated into Chinese [23] and Russian. [24]

Publications

Paul Gladston has published numerous monographs, edited anthologies, book chapters and journal articles in both scholarly and artworld contexts [25] .

Gladston’s writing shows a significant evolution in critical thinking over the last two decades. His early writing is most strongly informed by European/American poststructuralist and postcolonialist theory. [26] More recent publications highlight Gladston’s now signature identification of culturally complex and shifting critical-interpretative frameworks - resonant with the Derridean concept of ‘supplementarity’ [27] – which combine intersecting though ultimately unreconcilable cultural standpoints [28] . His work has been translated into Chinese [22] and Russian. [23]

Gladston was almost certainly the first English-language writer to publicly criticise the artist Ai Weiwei in a series of articles for the online journal Ran Dian. [29]

The JNCCA has recently launched a bi-lingual Chinese-English book series, titled the JNCCA Editions which is ‘designed to make previously inaccessible scholarly and artworld content available to global audiences.’ [30]

Gladston’s book length publications include:

Exhibitions

Gladston has co-curated, funded or been an academic advisor to several international exhibitions of Chinese contemporary art. Gladston’s curatorial work with Lynne Howarth-Gladston on a number of these exhibitions involves a continuing critical dialogue with the Hong Kong-based curator Johnson Tsong-Zung Chang’s conception of the ‘Yellow Box’ – an intimist intervention with the internationally dominant mode of gallery and museum display know as the White Cube intended to be more conducive to the showing of Chinese art [41] . Gladston and Howarth-Gladston have published several articles critical of the inherent cultural exceptionalism of the Yellow Box which also propose the idea of trans-/culturally differential ‘poly/cacophonic’ modes of artistic display [42] .

Gladston and Howarth-Gladston will co-curate a group exhibition of contemporary video art from the Sinosphere at the SOAS Gallery, University of London UK in 2026 with the artist and curator Yique and the art critic and curator Lin Zi. [43]

References

  1. ↑ "Professor Paul Gladston". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 2024-12-18.
  2. ↑ "Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art". UNSW sites.
  3. ↑ "UNSW appoints inaugural Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art". UNSW sites.
  4. ↑ "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  5. ↑ "REF Case study search". impact.ref.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  6. ↑ "Dr Paul Gladston - The University of Nottingham". www.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  7. ↑ "School of International Communications - University of Nottingham Ningbo China (2005-2010)". www.nottingham.edu.cn. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  8. ↑ "University of Nottingham Ningbo China", Wikipedia, 2025-04-02, retrieved 2025-08-05
  9. ↑ "Centre for Contemporary East Asian Cultural Studies - The University of Nottingham". www.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  10. ↑ Beeby, Rosslyn (2018-02-16). "Nottingham art professor to take up UNSW chair". Research Professional News. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  11. ↑ "Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art". Intellect Books. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  12. ↑ "Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics". SpringerLink. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  13. ↑ "Professor Paul Gladston Joins Third Text Board of Trustees". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  14. ↑ "Paul Gladston secures funding for International Conference - The University of Nottingham". www.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  15. ↑ sina_mobile (2017-05-11). "Paul Gladston 保罗·葛思谛". collection.sina.cn. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  16. ↑ Lien (2015-05-29). "The 9th Award of Art China (AAC)—the Most Influential of the Year". 燃点 Ran Dian. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  17. ↑ Gladston, Paul (2020). Contemporary Chinese art, aesthetic modernity and Zhang Peili: towards a critical contemporaneity. Aesthetics and contemporary art. London New York: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN   978-1-350-04197-4.
  18. ↑ See Paul Gladston (2007), '(More Writing on) The Wall: Reshaping (Gao Minglu's Vision of) Contemporary Chinese Art', Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 6(3) (September 2007), 103–110 (https://yishu-online.com/wp-content/uploads/mm-products/uploads/2007_v06_03_gladston_p_p103.pdf)
  19. ↑ "Who is Pounding The Wall? A Response to Paul Gladston's "Writing on the Wall and (Entry Gate): A Critical Response to Recent Curatorial Meditations on the 'Chineseness' of Contemporary Chinese Art" | Yishu Online". Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  20. ↑ "Writing on The Wall (and Entry Gate): A Critical Response to Recent Curatorial Meditations on the "Chineseness" of Contemporary Chinese Visual Art | Yishu Online". Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  21. ↑ Gladston, Paul. "Somewhere (and Nowhere) between Modernity and Tradition: Towards a Critique of International and Indigenous Perspectives on the Significance of Contemporary Chinese Art – Tate Papers". Tate. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  22. 1 2 "New book: Rethinking Displays of Chinese Contemporary Art". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  23. 1 2 Lu, Carol Yinghua, ed. (2025). Artistic and Intellectual Practices in Contemporary China. doi:10.1007/978-981-99-8815-0. ISBN   978-981-99-8814-3.
  24. ↑ Paul Gladston (2023), Художественные группы "Авангард" в Китае - 1979-1989 ['Avant-garde' Art Groups in China, 1979–1989], Boston MA: Academic Studies Press. [Contemporary Eastern Studies in the Russian Language] - Revised Russian language translation of Paul Gladston (2013), Avant-garde Art Groups in China, 1979–1989 , Bristol: Intellect and Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  25. ↑ "Professor Paul Gladston". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  26. ↑ Gladston, Paul (2016). "Deconstructing Contemporary Chinese Art" . Chinese Contemporary Art Series. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-46488-5. ISBN   978-3-662-46487-8. ISSN   2199-9058.
  27. ↑ "Course Materials". Course Materials. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  28. ↑ Yan, Haiping; Jin, Haina; Gladston, Paul, eds. (2024). Translation studies and China: literature, cinema, and visual arts. London ; New York: Routledge. ISBN   978-1-032-56397-8.
  29. ↑ Gladston, Paul (2015-08-22), The (Continuing) Story of Ai , Chinese Contemporary Art Series, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 89–91, doi:10.1007/978-3-662-46488-5_10, ISBN   978-3-662-46487-8 , retrieved 2025-08-05
  30. ↑ "The Tides of the Century: Launching the JNCCA Editions—A New Chapter in Contemporary Art Publishing". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  31. ↑ Gladston, Paul; Howarth-Gladston, Lynne; Tsong-zung Chang, Johnson; Kuo, Jason, eds. (2024). "Rethinking Displays of Chinese Contemporary Art" . Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics. doi:10.1007/978-981-97-2906-7. ISBN   978-981-97-2905-0. ISSN   2662-7701.
  32. ↑ "Translation Studies and China: Literature, Cinema, and Visual Arts". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  33. ↑ "Search Grid". Academic Studies Press. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  34. ↑ Gladston, Paul; Kennedy-Schtyk, Beccy; Turner, Ming, eds. (2021). "Visual Culture Wars at the Borders of Contemporary China" . Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics. doi:10.1007/978-981-16-5293-6. ISBN   978-981-16-5292-9. ISSN   2662-7701.
  35. ↑ bloomsbury.com. "Contemporary Chinese Art, Aesthetic Modernity and Zhang Peili". Bloomsbury. Archived from the original on 2025-06-27. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  36. ↑ Gladston, Paul (2016). "Deconstructing Contemporary Chinese Art" . Chinese Contemporary Art Series. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-46488-5. ISBN   978-3-662-46487-8. ISSN   2199-9058.
  37. ↑ "Paul Gladston publishes book and scholarly essay on artist Yu Youhan - The University of Nottingham". www.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  38. ↑ "Contemporary Chinese Art". Reaktion Books. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  39. ↑ GLADSTON, Paul. "'Avant-garde' Art Groups in China, 1979-1989". Intellect Books. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  40. ↑ Archive, Asia Art. "Contemporary Art in Shanghai: Conversations with Seven Chinese Artists". aaa.org.hk. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  41. ↑ Archive, Asia Art. "The Yellow Box: Contemporary Calligraphy and Painting in Taiwan". aaa.org.hk. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  42. ↑ Gladston, Paul; Howarth-Gladston, Lynne (2024), Gladston, Paul; Howarth-Gladston, Lynne; Tsong-zung Chang, Johnson; Kuo, Jason (eds.), "Inside/Outside the Yellow Box: Toward a Poly/Cacophonic Displaying of (Chinese) Contemporary Art" , Rethinking Displays of Chinese Contemporary Art, Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, pp. 1–32, doi:10.1007/978-981-97-2906-7_1, ISBN   978-981-97-2905-0 , retrieved 2025-08-05
  43. ↑ "Mapping the Frontiers of China's Contemporary Video Art: A Multi-City Field Journey by the JNCCA Team". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  44. ↑ "Roundtable Discussion: Contemporary Chinese Ink Painting and the Persistence of Daoism". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  45. ↑ "Yique's Way — Mutuality in Extremes". UNSW Sites.
  46. ↑ "Rain on the Platform - Tan Lijie, Selected Works". UNSW Sites.
  47. ↑ "Enchanted Realities – Tan Lijie Selected Works 2013-2022". UNSW Sites.
  48. ↑ "Dis-/Continuing Traditions". UNSW Sites.
  49. ↑ "New China/New Art". UNSW Sites.
  50. ↑ "Art of Change: New Directions from China – in pictures". the Guardian. 7 September 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.