News
Writing - July
My talk about paedophilia in French gay liberation, and the ethical problems of anti-normativity in the queer present, will be republished by the French press Editions Burn-Aout in a forthcoming collection Politiser l'enfance.
Writing - June
Talk - June
Writing - April
Essay - March
Talk - 3rd March
Talk - 2nd March
For the new show of paintings by Justin Fitzpatrick at Tetley, Leeds, Paul will be in conversation with the artist.
Talk - 24th Feb
As part of the Stephen Dwoskin Project, Paul will introduce a screening of Dwoskin's The Sun and The Moon at the British Film Institute.
Talk - 10th Feb
Talks - Jan and Feb
Talk - Oct
MOMA, New York, will be hosting a talk and screening between Tim Leyendekker and myself in response to his film FEAST about the Gronigen HIV case and my text about it. The screening and convertion will be available to stream online in all countries.
Essay - Sept
New texts on the films of Lionel Soukaz and the history of intersectional and anti-capitalist gay liberion movements are to be published as parof the EVA Biennial catalogue. On sale soon.
Exhibition - Sept
My project 'Sexuality of a Nation', an expanded version of the 'Militant Desire' series, has been launched as parf the EVA Biennial in Ireland.
Essay - August
I have written an essay 'Puritains Are All Wet' for the inaugral publication from
Talk - Feb
The new podcast 'Decolonise My Genitals' from writer Roisin Agnew and Tate curator Daniel MacPheorais, will open with an episode on my body of work followed by episodes with and on Mackensie Wark and others.
Essay - Jan 2021
I have been commissioned by CCA Brighton and Tramway, Glasgow, to write a catalogue essay on the paintings of Flo Brooks, exploring rural community through a queer lens.
Essay - Jan 2021
For this year's prestigious International Film Festival Rotterdam, I have been asked to write about Tim Leydedekker's new film FEAST, on the Gronigen HIV case and the politics of consent.
Event - Dec 2020
I appeared in conversation with Merve Elevren, Curor of EVA Biennial, Ireland, to discuss activating the archives of political movements in the present.
Essay - Nov 2020
I have written an essay on Than Hussein Clark's exhibition 'A Little Night Music (And Reversals)' showing at CRAC L'Occitane, France.
Exhibition - Sept 2020
Paul's project 'Sexuality of a Nation' exploring the relevance of sexual liberation era activism for today, has been announced as part of the forthcoming EVA Biennial, Ireland.
Essay - April 2020
Paul has written an essay on Michael Portnoy's new film 'Progressive Touch' for Paletten magazine, based in Sweden. The film has screened interenationally at museums and film festivals.
Talk –March 2020
Paul will be giving a talk at Paul Mellon Centre, on class and taste in the work of Linder, to accompany the exhibition Linderism at Kettle's Yard.
Writing – November 2019
Paul's essay 'AA Bronson: Revolutionary Asshole' will be published by Patrick Frei
Talk – 28th October
Paul will give a public lecture on his recent writing at Central Saint Martins, London, under the title 'Not Tonight Dear: contemporar art and the limits of political agency'.
Talk 12th October
Paul will give a tour of his exhibition LIMP at Galerie Emanuel Layr.
Writing- October
Spinning off from the forthcoming exhibition Into The Night at Barbican Centre, London, Paul will be writing an essay for frieze magazine on the influence clubs and cabaret have had on contemporar art, as well as the misgivings many have about those genres.
Writing and Screening – 22nd September
As part of the annuel Berwick Film Festival, Paul will be presenting on the work of Lionel Soukaz as part of their Essential Cinemas strand. His essay on Soukaz will also be republished in the festival catalogue.
Exhibition/Writing – 12th September 2019
At the invitation of Galerie Emanuel Layr, as part of the City of Vienna annual contemporary art festival 'Curated By', Paul has organised the group exhibition 'Limp'. This show - featuring works by General Idea, Robert Blanchon, Cosima von Bonin, Michael Curran, Lisa Holzer and Richard John Jones – explores how artists have explored desire, whilst resisting the fetishisation or commodification of non-normative sexuality as transgressive or subversive.
Writing – July 2019
Paul has written a short article on the work of feminist artist Tomaso Binga for Tinted Window journal.
Talks – 16th July 2019
At London's Mimosa House, Paul will introduce a rare screening of Ulrike Ottinger's film 'Ticket of No Return' (1979) a seminal piece of queer european cinema, featuring drunk women amid Cold War decay. After the film Paul will be in conversation with artist Zoe Williams and filmmaker Amy Gwatkin about their new work Sunday Fantasy, recently reviewed in The Guardian.
Talks – 18th July
Paul will be hosting a panel discussion on phtography, gender trouble and anti-Conservative politics from the 1980s to today, at Hayward Gallery, London, featuring artists Ajamu, Del LaGrace Volcano, Holly Falconer and Amrou Al-Kadhi.
Talks – 11th July
Paul will be leading a tour of the Hayward Gallery show Kiss My Genders for which he has written the catalogue essay.
Writing – June 2019
The catalogue for the Hayward Gallery major summer exhibition Kiss My Genders, features an essay by Paul Clinton called Useless Man, looking at gender play in UK contemporary art and underground culture from 1980 to today. Published by Hayward Publishing, the book features contributions from Amrou Al-Kadhi, Paul Clinton, Charlie Fox, Jack Halberstam, Manuel Segade and Susan Stryker, a key republished text by artist Renate Lorenz and poetry by Travis Alabanza, Jay Bernard, Nat Raha and Tark Lakhrissi.
Forthcoming: catalogue essays for General Idea – the poodle pictures at Mitchell, Innes and Nash, New York, and on the work of AA Bronson for Editions Patrick Frei, Switzerland. The launch of a regular podcast and radio programme as part of the radio station run by May Day Rooms, the UK archive of radical, marginal and underground culture. Paul's book Other Hunting to be published by the French-British independent imprint Ma Bibliotheque, building on the keynote talk he gave at Palais de Tokyo: The Trouble With Not Normal: Tony Duvert and French Boy Lovers. He will also be teaching as part of the Impossible University group at Flat Time House, London.
Publication – 29th May 2019
To coincide with the launch of Militant Desire there will be a publication, edited by Paul, mimicking the format of early Gay Liberation papers, featuring new and republished writing on the work of Lionel Soukaz, as well as archival and newly commissioned reflections on the role of consciousness raising in queer activism of the past and today. The publication will be designed and printed by the queer design and print studio PageMasters.
Event – 29th May 2019
Please attend the launch of the series Militant Desire, an ambitious screening programme curated by Paul, across Gasworks and LUX in London, with funding from the French and British government awarded by FLUXUS Art Projects. The series focusses on the early work of pioneering French gay liberation and experimental filmmaker Lionel Soukaz, and his collaborations with Guy Hocquenghem, Michel Foucault and Doug Ireland. The series takes the form of several film forums or consciousness raising sessions, to see if activist strategies from the past might be useful to queer struggles in the present. It also aims to invert the authority of the curator and institution by focussing on the audience and their stories of oppression, so that the gallery can learn from the visitors. A special screening of Soukaz's rarely shown film IXE at LUX will be followed by a screening of works from UK and US expressing mixed feelings about queer identity under the title Ambivalent Militant.
Talks – 19th May 2019
To launch the catalogue for her exhibition The Bigger Sleep at Kunstmuseum Basel, Sophie Jung will be in conversation with Paul Clinton (who has written one of the publication texts) during Block Universe. This talk coincides with the London iteration of the same show.
Talks – 14th May 2019
Paul will be in conversation with artists Ian Giles, Nadine Artois, Bernice Mulenga (Pxssy Palace) and DJ Jeffery Hinton to discuss the history and future of gay bars and community activism as part of the touring video series Trojan Horse/Rainbow Flag organised with VIDEOCLUB, Gasworks, London, BALTIC, Gateshead and HOME, Manchester.
Event – 3rd May
For the launch of Failed States Journal, which has previously published major writers such as Wayne Koestenbaum and Olivia Laing, Paul has been invited to give a reading from his article The Immoralists, on the problem of resisting norms without turning into a moralist, and the ethical interrogations of Andre Gide, Jean Genet and, perhaps unexpectedly, Graham Greene.
Writing – May 2019
The catalogue for Sohpie Jung's Manor Art Award exhibition The Bigger Sleep at Kunstmuseum Basel Switzerland, features a newly commissioned collaborative text between Paul and Elvira Hojberg. The catalogue will be launched at various performances and book fairs over the next six months.
Writing – May 2019
Trojan Horse, a project by the artist Ian Giles and made in collaboration with a number of institutions including VIDEOCLUB, Gasworks, London, and HOME, Manchester, will be touring the UK showing works on queer spaces by Charlotte Prodger, GAY BAR aka Rosie Hastings and Hannah Quinlan, Patrick Staff and Matthew Parkin. Paul has written a snarky love letter to gay bars to accompany this show.
Writing – May 2019
The forthcoming issue of MOUSSE magazine feature's Paul's profile of the performance artist Rose English, to coincide with her exhibition at Richard Saltoun Gallery.
Talks – 11th April 2019
To coincide with her exhibition 'Form, Feminisms, Femininities' at Richard Saltoun Gallery, artist Rose English has invited Paul to discuss her work from early performances of the 1970s and 80s through to her more recent use of objects and installation.
Talks/Launch – 6th April 2019
The Paris Ass Book Fair at Palais de Tokyo have invited Paul to talk about his current book project Other Hunting to be published by MA BIBLIOTHEQUE.
Writing – April 2019
Independent magazine Failed States, which has previously featured contributions from Wayne Koestenbaum and Olivia Laing, will be publishing an essay by Paul called 'The Imoralists' all about the problem of norms and their resistance in queer arts and culture today.
Talks – March 2019
The international conference Cruising the Seventies takes place at University of Edinburgh, looking at the relevancy of 1970s gay liberation for contemporary queer art and politics. Paul has been invited to give a paper, drawing upon his forthcoming book Other Hunting (2019, Ma Bibliotheque).
Writing – March 2019
Cura magazine have invited Paul to write a feature length article on the work of Justin Fitzpatrick, whose recent exhibtions at Seventeen, London, Galerie Sultana, Paris and Kevin Space, Vienna, have explored queer communities and history.
Talks - March 2019
Paul will be the keynote speaker for a day symposium on art and stupidity convened by the Centre for Philosophy and the Visual Arts at King's College London.
Talks – February 2019
Paul will be giving a day of crits at the Royal Academy for graduating students.
Writing - January 2019
Paul has written an essay for the forthcoming Hayward Gallery exhibition Kiss My Genders. His text will appear in a catalogue alongside essays from Sustan Stryker, Jack Halberstam and Olivia Laing.
Writing January 2019
To accompany the first solo show of Thomas Liu Le Lann, winner of the prestigious Swiss BNP Parabis art prize, Paul has been commissioned to write on meekness, queerness and intersectional politics for a catalogue to be launched at Art Geneva fair.
Talks – 21st January 2019
Städelschule, Frankfurt have invited Paul to deliver a lecture drawing upon his ongoing research, book and exhibition project Mediocre Sex.
Talks – 1st December
Paul will be contributing to a panel on art and AIDS activism then and now at the British Film Institute.
Curating – November 2018
Art Night London 2019 has just announced that Paul will be on the selection panel for ancillary projects, chosing which events will be produced and offering curatorial mentoring for one of those chosen. This event is organised with the Hayward Gallery.
Talks – 23rd November 2018
Flat Time House, London, will be celebrating the wrork of writer, painter and visionary Jeff Nuttal and the republication of his long out of print cult book on the 1960s counter-culture, BOMB CULTURE (1968). For the opening event Paul will be in conversation with the two editors of the new edition.
Talks – 20th November 2018
Paul will be in conversation with artist and lecturer Dr Sharon Kivland as part of the Transmission series at Sheffield Hallam University.
Writing – November 2018
Paul has written a catalogue essay for Philipp Timschil's solo exhibition at the Vienna Secession, Austria, which will also include short texts from Didier Eribon author of the celebrated Returning to Reims (2009).
Talks – 17th November 2018
Paul will be in conversation with writer and novelist Dodie Bellamy at Burley Fisher Books in London (purchase tickets here). Dodie is the author of ten books, including most recently When the Sick Rule the World (2015, Semiotexte) and the collection Writers Who Love Too Much: 1977-1997 (2017, Nightboat) which she edited with Kevin Killian. This year, in recognition of her contribution to fiction, poetry and art writing, she is the subject of a season of events at contemporary art space CCA Wattis, San Francisco. In their conversation, Paul and Dodie will cover themes of gender, horror and cultural consumption across her fiction and non-fiction; her work as one of the original practitioners of ‘new narrative’, a queer and socialist writing ethos; and the influence of contemporary art on her work and that of her contemporaries such as Kathy Acker and Dennis Cooper.
Talks - 2nd November 2018
Paul will be in conversation with Christeene about her video, music and performance work. The event takes place at the ICA with details to be announced shortly.
Talks – 29th October 2018
In partnership with filmmaker and writer Maija Timonen, Paul will be leading feedback on the work of artists participating in this year's CONDITIONS studio programme. CONDITIONS is a year long, low cost alternative art school and studio space started by artists David Panos and Matthew Noel-Tod.
Talks – 20th October 2018
Paul will give a talk as part of the Crusing Pavillion at FIAC Paris on the utopian potentials of cruising. Other speakers included artists Huw Lemmey, Rosie Hastings and Hannah Quinlan.
Writing – 15th October 2018
Paul has written a piece for frieze magazine objecting to the methods and words used by ACT UP London in responding to the late artist and HIV-AIDS activist David McDiarmid's Rainbow Aphorisms posters in London.
Writing – October 2018
The White Review will publish an interview between Paul and novelist Bruce Benderson, author of the Prix de Flore winning novel The Romanian (2006, Snow Books) ahead of the release of his new collection of short stories Urban Gothic (2018, ITNA Press).
Exhibition – October 2018
Quote from the publicity for The Annotated Reader: 'The Annotated Reader is now open at 9b Cork Street Galleries, London. Consisting of 281 texts selected and annotated by invited artists, academics, writers, musicians and designers, contributors include Marina Abramovic, Art & Language, Paul Clinton, Tom Godfrey, Ragnar Kjartansson, Sarah Lucas, Alistair Hudson, Jerry Saltz and Hans Ulrich Obrist.'
Appointment – October 2018
Goldsmiths College, University of London have given Paul a permanent appointment as Lecturer in Curating on its MFA Curating course. The curating department is world recognised both for its politicized and innovative approaches to exhibtion making, as well as the calibre of its contributors. Paul's appointment comes at an exciting time for the arts at Goldsmiths, with the opening of a major new public art space CCA Goldsmiths.
Writing – September 2018
Paul will publish an essay for Joey Holder's Acredo project, which has shown at Matts Gallery, London, QUAD, Derby and Block, Sheffield.
Events – 25th July 2018
Dr Andrew Wilson and artist Joey Holder will be leading a public seminar at QUAD, Derby, looking at Paul's essay One Man Protest alongside the late Mark Fisher's important Exiting the Vampire Castle, to discuss ideas of belonging and political affiliation.
Appointment – 13th July 2018
Paul has been announced as part of the associate teaching faculty of CONDITIONS an alternative, low cost arts education and studio programme for 12 artists a year. CONDITIONS is organised by David Panos and Matthew Noel-Tod, and the associates include Ami Clarke, Pil & Galia Kollectiv, Ayesha Hameed, Danny Hayward, John Hill, Jean Matthee, Yuri Pattison, Clunie Reid, Tom Richards, Lou Lou Sainsbury, Maija Timonen, Nikhil Vettukattil and Marina Vishmidt. You can apply to study here.
Curating – July 2018
The exhibition 'Forbidden to Forbid' curated by Paul, runs until 13th July at Balice Hertling Gallery, Rue Ramponeau, Paris, France. Featuring artists Lionel Soukaz, Pierre Zucca, Pierre Klossowski, Claude Farraldo, Beth Collar, Oreet Ashery and Giles Round, it was commissioned, on the invitation of artist run space Goswell Road.
The exhibition has been positively reviewed in the French Inferno magazine, Le Republique de L'Art and featured in MOUSSE, on the Verso Books website and the Resonance FM radio programme Suite 212 (available via Soundcloud and iTunes).
Book Launch – 11th July 2018
The book 'Forbidden to Forbid: A Reader' including images from the exhibition, a new essay by Paul, alongside some of his older texts, an interview with Lionel Soukaz and an excerpted text by TJ Demos, will launch in Paris. The event will be an in conversation with art historian, critic and activist Elisabeth Lebovici, discussing the publication alongside her recent award-winning book 'Ce que le sida m'a fait' published by JRP Ringier. The book is part of an ongoing series of publications from Goswell Road, and co-produced with Balice Hertling, Paris.
Radio – 6th July 2018
In the latest Suite 212 EXTRA podcast, part of a series on Resonance FM, author Juliet Jacques (Trans, Verso) interviews Paul about queer activism in France before and after May 1968. The show spins off from ideas in the exhibition Forbidden to Forbid that he has curated in Paris for Goswell Road artist-run-space and Galerie Balice Hertling.
Writing – July 2018
Paul will be writing essays on the work of Beth Collar to follow her exhibition at Nottingham space Primary and that of Joey Holder for her show at QUAD, Derby. He will also be contributing to an edited volume produced by the Impossible University, alongside Adrian Rifkin, Naomi Segal, and many others.
Paul has been invited to become part of the associate faculty of a new London based independent art school to be launched this September.
Publishing – July 2018
Paul has written new and collected previous essays on theme of his Paris exhibition 'Forbidden to Forbid' – questioning sexual liberation – for a publication to be published by Goswell Road.
Writing – June 2018
The latest issue of MOUSSE magazine features Paul's eight page interview with legendary filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger. They discuss her involvement in the New German Cinema alongside Fassbinder and Schroeter, her training with Jean Rouch, the relationship between art and ethnography, and her politics of queer feminist insubordination.
Teaching – June 2018
Paul is amongst a select number of lecturers, critics and curators invited to give end of year crits across the departments of sculpture, painting, media and printmaking at the Royal College of Art, London.
Talks – June 2018
To coincide with the exhibition 'Any frame is a thrown voice' at Camden Arts Centre, London, on the work of the late Ian White, Paul will be leading a series of talks on performance art and its politics.
Writing – June 2018
Read Paul Clinton's article on Nil Yalter's Le Chevalier d'Eon (1978) for Art Basel. This pioneering work on transgender identity will be the solo booth presentation for Turkish art gallery Galerist.
Curating – 25-26th May 2018
Strange Perfume, London's first queer book fair focussing on artist's books, will be taking place over two days at South London Gallery. Paul is co-organising the event which will feature talks, workshops and screenings alongside stalls selling books, zines and journals. He will be interviewing artists GAY BAR and AA Bronson.
Paul has been awarded Artists' International Development Funding for international research, gifted by Arts Council England and the British Council.
ANNOTATED SAXCOMPENDIA a new publication and exhibition by Ryan Gander and Jonathan P Watts is a reader and intellectual resource comprised of annotated texts from significant contemporary artists, writers and curators. For his contribution Paul has annotated an essay on queer politics and class.
Talks – April 2018
HEAD, Geneva have invited Paul as a visiting lecturer to lead a seminar on stupidity and humour in contemporary art.
Talks – 19th March 2018
Paul has been invited to to the Royal College of Art, London, to lead a seminar on his new project 'Mediocre Sex'.
Curating – February 2018
Paul has been invited to nominate an artist for the 2018 Film London Jarman Award. The prize, named after Derek Jarman, celebrates artists working in moving image. A select group of critics and curators are invited to nominate artists for a shortlist, from which a jury will select a winner.
He will also be part of an ongoing conversation on the impossible in art and theory with artists and writers such as Naomi Segal, Adrian Rifkin, Sharon Kivland and many others, with a view to future publication.
Talks – 24th February 2018
Paul has been invited to discuss the relationship between print and the image at CGP Gallery, London, for the opening of the exhibition 'Hold Your Horses'.
Event – 19th February 2018
Nottingham Contemporary, have invited Paul to participate in a secretive project, details of which may or may not be revealed at a future time.
Talks – 26th January 2018
Paul will be the critical respondent at the PerformanceProcess Symposium taking place at the Museum Tinguely and Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland. Speakers include Alexandra Bachzetsis, John Armleder, Catherine Wood, Christian Marclay, Pierre Bal-Blanc, Sophie Jung, Andrea Saemann and many others.
Talks –22nd January 2018
Paul will be in conversation as part of a salon on visual culture at UCL
Writing – 13th January 2018
At Rob Tuffnel Gallery, the Viennese gallery Croy Nielsen will be showing paintings by Marlie Mul as part of this year's CONDO. Paul wrote a short essay on this series of works last year. Click on the names to find details..
Writing – December 2017
Paul is currently working on two curatorial projects in Paris and New York and a book to be published by Ma Bibliothèque in a series alongside titles by Paul Buck, Ricardo Boglione and Kate Briggs.
Talks – 27th November 2017
Paul will be speaking as part of the next HMN organised by Chris Fite-Wassilak and Anne Tallentire. HMN11, 27 November 2017, Rover Rooms, Somerset House.
Editing – November 2017
Paul was invited by Kunstraum, Czech Centre, London, and the European Commission, to create and edit a primer on artist led activism to accompany an event marking the anniversary of Charter 77. The publication 'Rage Against the Machine: A Primer on Artist Led Activism' features contributions from Vaclav Benda Jeremiah Day, Index on Censorship, Not in My Name, Gregory Sholette, Jacques Ranciere, Irit Rogoff and Jonathan P Watts.
Writing – 18th November 2017
Read Paul's review of Zach Blas's exhibition Contra-Internet at Gasworks, London by going to the Art Review website here.
Writing – 7th November 2017
Read Paul's text for Marlie Mul's new show 'Booby' at Croy Nielsen, Vienna.
Writing – 26th October 2017
Paul's article on the Experimenta section of the London Film Festival 2017 for frieze.com: 'Life Repeated' – Two films using time and repetition to question our fragile relationship to lived reality and revolutionary politics. Read here.
Writing 2017
Read Paul's review of David Panos 'Time Crystals' at Pump House Gallery, London, in the next issue of Art Monthly.
Writing 2017
Read Paul's article on fashionable ideas in the next issue of The White Review.
Talks – 18th October 2017
Paul will be leading a weekly seminar 'Not Tonight Dear: art, sexuality and the twilight of agency' from 18th October at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London.
Writing – 29th September 2017
Read Paul's interview with legendary South African photographer David Goldblatt. They discuss apartheid, representation and censorship for frieze.com, 29th September.
Talks – 29th September 2017
Come to Deptford X festival for the launch of Failed States Journal, 29th September. Paul will be reading his piece on Michel Tournier, Brexit and progressive exoticism, which features in the first issue of the magazine. Other contributors include Matt Conners, Eli Diner, Olivia Lang and Cally Spooner.
Writing – 9th September 2017
An excerpt from Paul's essay 'All Tension, No Release', on the work of Sophie Jung, has been chosen to accompany the artist's show at Sophie Tappenier gallery, Vienna, which opens on 9th September. The text originally appeared alongside essays by Tom Morton, Megan Nolan and Sally O’Reilly, published by Kunstraum, London.
Writing and Curating 2017
Read Paul's text for the queer artist book fair Strange Perfume, to be launched in 2018. Paul will also be curating the events programme.
Paul Clinton 2017 © Copyright. All Rights Reserved.