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King’s People

Biography

For over twenty years Kate McMillan has been a practising contemporary artist working across installation, film, sound, and sculpture. Her work examines the persistence of difficult and forgotten histories in the present. Both her art practice and academic research engages with the postcolonialism, gender inequality and the Anthropocene. McMillan is the current author of the Freelands Foundation Report ‘Representation of Female Artist’s in Britain’. Her PhD explored the capacity for contemporary art to un-forget history with a specific focus on the colonial histories of Australia. More recently she has been writing on the methodologies of creative resistance in the global south, and in feminist practices, as well as detailed research on gender inequality in the contemporary art world with two pending publications. McMillan provides advocacy in the cultural sector and undertakes regular public engagement work. Her art practice can be viewed here: www.katemcmillan.net.

Teaching

Contemporary Art; Gender Inequality in the Cultural Sector and Postcolonialism.

Research Interests

  • Contemporary art
  • Post-colonialism
  • Gender
  • Memory and art

Expertise and public engagement 

Gender Inequality Research

Selected Publications / Exhibitions

  • (2019) ‘Contemporary Art & Un-forgetting in Colonial Landscapes: Islands of Empire’. Palgrave Macmillan
  • (2020) The Lost Girl (exhibition) https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/the-lost-girl
  • (2019/20) ‘Representation of Female Artist’s in Britain’ https://freelandsfoundation.co.uk/research-and-publications/annual-report-representation-of-female-artists-in-britain/
  • Instructions for Another Future (my feet are ears) 2018, (exhibition) Rohkunstbau Festival, Germany
  • The Past is Singing in my Teeth, 2017/18 (exhibition) Kunsthaus Bethanian, Berlin, Civic Room Glasgow; Edinburgh Art Festival
View all publications