Dr Bill Balaskas

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Bill Balaskas
About
Research

About

I am an artist, theorist and educator, working across different media and dissemination platforms. I joined Kingston University in May 2019 as Associate Professor and Director of Research, Business and Innovation at the School of Art and Architecture.

My works have been widely exhibited internationally, in more than 130 museums, galleries, festivals and public spaces. I have received awards from the European Investment Bank Institute; Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art; European Cultural Foundation; Open Society Institute; and the Association for Art History, amongst others.

In parallel with my artistic practice, I have been an editor for the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (The MIT Press), while my writings have also appeared in edited books and in publications such as the Journal of Visual Culture, Third Text and Revista Arta.

Furthermore, I am an advisor to Arts Council England in the field of collaborative research between Higher Education and the cultural sector (Midlands Higher Education and Culture Forum).

Originally trained as an economist, I hold a PhD Critical Writing in Art & Design an MA in Communication Art & Design from the Royal College of Art.

Academic responsibilities

Associate Professor & Director of Research, Business and Innovation, School of Art and Architecture

Qualifications

  • PhD Critical Writing in Art & Design, Royal College of Art
  • MA Communication Art & Design, Royal College of Art
  • BA Video Arts Production, University for the Creative Arts
  • BSc Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Research

My research brings together a wide range of art practices and strands of theory in order to investigate the ideological function of contemporary culture.

My exhibitions include presentations at MACBA, Barcelona; BOZAR, Brussels; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; CA2M, Madrid; Transmediale, Berlin; Le CENTQUATRE, Paris; John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; ARTIUM, Vitoria-Gasteiz; Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens; TENT, Rotterdam; Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York; Thessaloniki Biennale; Les Abattoirs, Toulouse; and the British Film Institute, London.

Furthermore, my video works have been presented in numerous film festivals, and in curated sections of leading international art fairs, including Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Cologne and Art Brussels. 

My lecture-performances include presentations at Tate Liverpool; University of Oxford; Sharjah Biennial; Goldsmiths University, London; Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg; Central Saint Martins, London; Warburg Haus, Hamburg; De Bijloke Muziekcentrum, Ghent; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 

My most recent book is 'Institution as Praxis: New Curatorial Directions for Collaborative Research' (Sternberg Press, March 2020).

Areas of specialism

  • Art after the global financial crisis of 2008
  • Digital culture
  • Post-truth aesthetics
  • Contemporary art market
  • Post-marxist theory

Scholarly affiliations

  • Association for Art History (AAH)
  • American Educational Research Association (AERA)
  • Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST)
  • European Architectural History Network (EAHN)
  • Midlands Higher Education and Culture Forum (Arts Council England)
  • International Association of Word and Image Studies (IAWIS/AIERTI)
  • International Association for Visual Culture (IAVC)

Research student supervision

Main supervision

Other supervision