Jacqueline Millner

Biography

Dr Jacqueline Millner completed studies in law, political science, and visual arts, before consolidating a career as an arts writer and academic specialising in the history and theory of contemporary art. She has published widely on contemporary Australian and international art in key anthologies, journals, and catalogues of flagship national institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the Queensland Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW). Her book on Australian contemporary art, Conceptual Beauty, was published in 2010. She was visual arts editor for the national arts broadsheet RealTime, as well as guest editor of supplements and special issues of leading arts journals. She has also participated in exhibitions as a curator and artist, and worked both in art history and studio-based departments, including a design school.

Research

Drawing on art history and theory, but also cultural studies, visual culture studies, political theory and aesthetics, Millner's research seeks to theorise and understand the link between art practice and the prevailing values and ideas of contemporary society. Millner's research is informed by feminist and social history of art perspectives which strive to place art in a broader context. Hence her research spans public art, street art, innovative gallery-based practices (in particular video, installation and performance), animation, digital media, as well as artists' critiques of institutions such as museums. While her focus is local, she also seeks to contextualise contemporary Australian practice in international developments. Millner's research places a great deal of emphasis on the aesthetic experience, always conscious of the delicate relationship between the art object and art writing.

Publications

Refereed publications

Books

Conceptual Beauty: Perspectives on Australian contemporary art, Artspace, 2010, ISBN 9781920781415

Book chapters

'Australian Video Art in the 1980s’, in Matthew Perkins and Elena Galimberti (eds.), Video void: Australian video art 1970-2010, Monash University (forthcoming), 2012

'Australian Video Art in Context’, Video, an art, a history, Singapore: Singapore Art Museum, 2011

‘AES+F: The Feast of Trimalchio’, AES+F: The Revolution is Now, University of Queensland Art Museum, 2010

'Ben Quilty and the Emotional Eloquence of Painting', in Ben Quilty Live, Lisa Slade (ed.), University of Queensland Art Museum, 2009, ISBN 9781864999457

‘Australian Video Art’, in Russell Storer (ed.), Video Logic, Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art, 101-115, 2008

Refereed Journal articles

'AES+F and Critical Spectacle’, AAANZ Journal of Art: Art and Entertainment, 2011

‘Visual Poetics: the critical impulse in street art from Paris to Melbourne’, The International Journal of the Arts in Society, Vol 4 No 3, 2009, 303-320, 2009

Conference proceedings

'Video art as prosthetic memory’, College Arts Association National Conference, New York, USA, 2011

‘Street art aesthetics: Realism, surrealism and disruptive realism’, Hawaii International Conference of the Humanities, Hawaii, USA, January 2010

Research Supervision

Jane Polkinghorne, PhD, 'Vulgar Vernacular: Crude humour in contemporary art'

Elizabeth Pulie, PhD, 'The Death of Art: Realism in Contemporary Art'

Sylvia Griffith, MFA, 'Natural History and Emotional Connection'

Awards and Grants

2012: Bundanon Trust writer’s residency
2011: Australia Council for the Arts, $25 000 marketing grant for the publication of Australian Artists in the Museum by Ashgate Press (UK) with co-author Dr Jennifer Barrett, Director, Museum Studies, University of Sydney
2010: Australia Council for the Arts, $20 000 new work grant for arts writer for research project on street art: ‘Theorising Street Art, from Paris, to Melbourne, to Santiago’
2008: Power Institute of Fine Arts, University of Sydney and Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, international studio residency for eminent arts writer
2005: Australia Council for the Arts, $20 000 new work grant for arts writer for collaborative research with Dr Jennifer Barrett, Director, Museum Studies, University of Sydney
1997-2003: Australian Postgraduate Award for PhD research

Professional Memberships

College Arts Association, USA, member, 2004-present

AICA, international art critics association, Paris, member, 2009-present

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