Books in the New Directions in Contemporary Art series

"Since the global financial crash of 2008, artists have become increasingly engaged in a wide range of cultural activism targeted against capitalism, political authoritarianism, colonial legacies, gentrification, but also in opposition to their own exploitation. They have also absorbed and reflected forms of protest within their art practice itself. The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art maps, critiques, celebrates and historicises activist art, exploring its current urgency alongside the processes which have given rise to activism by artists, and activist forms of art. Author Gregory Sholette approaches his subject from the unusual dual perspective of commentator (as scholar and writer) and insider (as activist artist), in order to propose that the narrowing gap separating forms of activist art from an aesthetics of protest is part of a broader paradigm shift constituted by the multiplying crises within contemporary capitalism and democratic governance across the globe."--

Nina Mö ntmann's timely book extends the decolonisation debate to the institutions of contemporary art. In a thoughtfully articulated text, illustrated with pertinent examples of best practice, she argues that museums and galleries of contemporary art have a responsibility to 'decenter' their institutions, removing from their collections, exhibition policies and infrastructures a deeply embedded Euro-centric cultural focus with roots in the history of colonialism. In this, she argues, they can learn from the example both of anthropological museums (such as the Humboldt Forum in Berlin and the British Museum), which are engaged in debates about the colonial histories of their collections, and of small-scale art spaces (such as La Colonie in Paris or Savvy Contemporary in Berlin), which have the flexibility to initiate different kinds of conversation - for example, by programming exhibitions and events in collaboration with local diasporic communities from the global south.

The Culture Factory: Architecture and the Contemporary Art Museum examines museum design using international examples from Western Europe, China, Brazil and the USA. Written accessibly, it argues that the development of the art museum since the mid-1970s has involved the deliberate blurring of boundaries between different categories of art.

An engaging critical discussion of the aims and status of contemporary art criticism written by a highly respected art critic of many years' standing.

The Rise of the Contemporary Biennial offers a critical assessment of the current discussions around the subject of contemporary biennials and how these might be used to illuminate potential new approaches in this area of study.