Art Geek. Victorian historian. Writer + lecturer. Crazy about dogs. 19th-century gentleman in a former life. I’m a writer and lecturer in modern and contemporary art, and it’s my mission to make art understandable. To demystify it. Art can often seem like quite an exclusive area of knowledge, but it…

Visibility and the black female body in contemporary art — Listen to this as a podcast on Spotify or Apple, or search for The Gallery Companion on your podcast player. Last weekend I saw an exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery in London featuring the work of the British artist Claudette Johnson. She makes large-scale drawings, mostly of black women. I’ve…

Chance, timing and patience in the process of creating — Listen to this as a podcast on Spotify or Apple, or search for The Gallery Companion on your podcast player. I’ve had a subject in mind to talk about this week that I’ve been mulling over for a while. I wanted to explore how artists have interpreted power and authority…

Some thoughts on the feminist art exhibition at London’s Tate gallery Listen to this as a podcast on Spotify or Apple, or search for The Gallery Companion on your podcast player. Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, shoppers noticed strange changes to the price of goods…

The ‘thingness’ of art, and finding meaning in materiality Listen to this as a podcast on Spotify or Apple, or search for The Gallery Companion on your podcast player. ‎The Gallery Companion on Apple Podcasts Shortlisted for the Independent Podcast Awards 2023, The Gallery Companion is hosted by writer and historian Dr…podcasts.apple.com I suppose I shouldn’t really admit this, but sometimes I find looking at art in big galleries not terribly enjoyable. There’s…

Taking comfort from art and history in the age of Artificial Intelligence Listen to this as a podcast on Spotify or Apple, or search for The Gallery Companion on your podcast player. ‎The Gallery Companion on Apple Podcasts Shortlisted for the Independent Podcast Awards 2023, The Gallery Companion is hosted by writer and historian Dr…podcasts.apple.com Last week as I watched the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in discussion with Elon Musk at the first government-level AI Safety Summit held in the UK, I was struck…

Art, storytelling and conspiracy culture Listen to this as a podcast on Spotify or Apple, or search for The Gallery Companion on your podcast player. ‎The Gallery Companion on Apple Podcasts Shortlisted for the Independent Podcast Awards 2023, The Gallery Companion is hosted by writer and historian Dr…podcasts.apple.com This week I want to talk about a really interesting book that I’m reading at the moment by the Canadian author Naomi Klein. She’s a…

Process and the value of creating Listen to this as a podcast on Spotify or Apple, or search for The Gallery Companion on your podcast player. ‎The Gallery Companion on Apple Podcasts Shortlisted for the Independent Podcast Awards 2023, The Gallery Companion is hosted by writer and historian Dr…podcasts.apple.com A couple of weeks ago I went to see an exhibition of new work by the abstract painter Maryanne Hawes. It was one of…

What can we do? — Last week I listened to a gripping account of a British holidaymaker’s narrow escape from the wildfire flames on the Greek island of Rhodes. One minute he was sitting by the pool with a beer in hand, the next he was quite literally hot-footing it down the road with hoards…