Colin Perry is an art writer, academic and lecturer. He is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art theory and contextual studies at Arts University Bournemouth. Colin is an expert in artists’ moving image histories and is interested in how radical film and video practices relate to wider public debate and imaginaries. His current research areas include a focus on the imaginative possibilities of art in rural and non-metropolitan locales. He is editor of Art and the Rural Imagination (MTP, 2022), on notions of ‘the rural’ in contemporary art and the post-Brexit landscape. Recent research includes explorations of artists and collectives in diverse postcolonial and late-liberal landscapes around the world, with a particular focus on ecological thinking and being. His ongoing research also focuses on what Raymond Williams called ‘structures of feeling’, or public feeling and affect, in relation to nature and ecological crises.

His first monograph is Radical Mainstream: Independent Film, Video and Television in Britain, 1974-1990 (Intellect, 2020), which explores the development and challenges of counter-publics in video art, radical cinema and television. The book centres on the activities of the Independent Filmmakers’ Association (IFA) in relation to Channel 4 television, other groups such as the London Filmmakers’ Coop and the Other Cinema, the work of artist Stuart Marshall and filmmaker Marc Karlin. His research has been published in journals including the Moving Image Review and Art Journal (MIRAJ), Critical Studies in Television and a chapter in Laura Mulvey and Sue Clayton’s volume Other Cinemas (I.B. Tauris, 2017). 

His journalism and criticism is featured in a range of arts magazines such as Art Monthly, including the recent feature ‘Earth Matters’ (2023) on contemporary art and the soil, and an interview with the filmmaker Eric Baudelaire (2022).Colin has edited numerous publications for publishers including Phaidon Press, Hayward Publishing, Tate Publishing, the Venice Biennale, and more. He has taught at universities including Central Saint Martins (UAL) and Westminster University and has been a visiting lecturer at numerous others. He has a PhD from Central Saint Martins.

He is co-founder of the research group GRUND (https://grund-res.org) with artists Melanie Jackson, Jennet Thomas and Laura Eldret.

Contact

Contact me here