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BIO

Daniel Fountain (he/they) is an artist, independent curator, and researcher of queer craft. They are lecturer in art history and visual culture at the University of Exeter. Daniel was awarded a PhD from Loughborough University where he completed a practice-led research project titled 'All That Glitters Is Gold: Queering Waste Through Campy Craft'. Daniel's first book Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism in Contemporary Britain will be published with The University of Chicago Press and Intellect Books in July 2023. It explores the material cultures of LGBTQ+ activism in Britain since the 1980s and includes a range of contributions from academics, artists, activists, curators and heritage professionals. He is now working on a second publication which will be published with Bloomsbury Academic in 2025. As an artist, Daniel has exhibited on an international level and their work has been featured in several publications including Surface Design Journal, Crafts, and Embroidery: The Textile Art MagazineDaniel has curated a range of exhibitions and public programmes in collaboration with organisations such as Crafts Council, National Museums Liverpool, Grundy Art Gallery, Tate and Paul Mellon Centre.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Daniel Fountain's artistic practice explores themes of marginality and queerness. It often utilises methods historically associated with craft and textiles to subvert traditional notions of gender and sexuality. They grew up in a working-class household where ‘make do and mend’ was not trendy, but a necessity, and it is a mantra that still informs their life and practice today. Fountain works almost exclusively with discarded objects and found textiles. With a swishy flick of the wrist, these seemingly abject materials are often transformed into a powerful site of self-creation: one which celebrates the unloved, the overlooked, and the forgotten. The resulting works are inherently camp – both playful and political. 

CV

EDUCATION

2021 – PhD in Feminism, Sexual Politics and Visual Culture, Loughborough University

2017 – MA in Arts and Cultural Management, Distinction, King’s College London

2015 – BA in Fine Art and English Literature, First Class Honours, Aberystwyth University

EMPLOYMENT

2021-Pr – Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture, University of Exeter

2021-21 – Senior Research Assistant (Art & Performance), Manchester Metropolitan University 

2018-21 – Lecturer in Art History and Creative Arts, Loughborough University 

2018-21 – Lecturer in Art & Design, Nottingham Trent University

2018-19 – Faculty of Arts, Design and Media Employability Tutor, Birmingham City University

2017-18 – Lecturer in Art & Design, South Staffordshire College

Between 2020 and 2023 I also held visiting and guest lectureships at several Higher Education institutions worldwide including the Royal School of Needlework (UK), University of British Colombia (Canada), University of Victoria (Canada), University of Manitoba (Canada), Arts University Bournemouth (UK) and University of Glasgow (UK)

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2023

WINK WINK, The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery

it's a joy to be here, 87 Gallery

TIPPING POINT, Studio KIND

2022

ALPHA, AIR Gallery, Manchester

Diverse Voices in Textiles, Martin Hall Gallery, Loughborough University

2021

Knitting and Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace

Festival of Quilts, NEC Birmingham

Breeding Grounds, Two Queens, Leicester

2020

Two Queens Members Show, Leicester

Touch Me, Online Show

Queer Contemporaries, AIR Gallery, Manchester

Red Flags, Margate Pride

Riposte III, Riposte London, Virtual Gallery X Club

Queer Art(ists) Now, Archive Gallery, Rose Lipman Building, London 

LANDED, Loughborough University

Spectral Matter: Slippery and Subversive, Wellington B.Gray Gallery, North Carolina, USA

2019

SWITCH, Loughborough University

Crafting Change, Birmingham City University, Parkside Gallery [Solo Show]

Re-Imagining Citizenship, European Cultural Centre, Venice Biennale

Re-Imagining Citizenship, Martin Hall Gallery, LU Arts

2018

Edinburgh Collage Collective, Edinburgh Central Library, Edinburgh

Edinburgh Collage Collective, Tent Gallery, Edinburgh

HeforShe, University of Leicester and Attenborough Arts Centre

Reactive Maker, Wedge Gallery, Lichfield

2015

Young Wales, Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy

Fine Art Degree Show, Aberystwyth School of Art, Aberystwyth

Aberystwyth Printmakers 10 Year Anniversary, Oriel Q, Narberth

Aberystwyth Printmakers, Minerva Arts Centre, Llanidloes

2013

Winter Show, Aberystwyth School of Art, Aberystwyth

PRESS AND ARTIST FEATURES

Emily Collins, ‘Out and proud: makers celebrate 50 years of Pride at the Crafts Council Gallery’, Crafts Council (2022).

 

Nia Thomas, ‘First Outing’, Corridor8, (2021).

Matt Lambert, ‘Détournement: Daniel Fountain’, Surface Design Journal (2021), pp. 12-17.

Francesco Ferranati, ‘The Beauty of the Discarded: recycling and queerness in Daniel Fountain’s work’, Gender is a construct (2020).

 

Ellen Bell, ‘Beyond the Boundaries of Stitch’, EMBROIDERY: The Textile Art Magazine (2021), p.44-48.

 

‘Daniel Fountain’, The Art of Being Queer (2021).

 

‘Daniel Fountain: Faggoting’, Festival of Quilts Magazine (2020), p.9.

 

‘Art and Pride: 7 LGBTQ+ Artists Challenging the Canon’, Rise Art (2020).

'Craft and Gender Artist List’, Craft Conscious (2020).

COMMISSIONS, RESIDENCES, ART AWARDS

Queer/Disrupt (Runner Up), 2021

Vlieseline Fine Art Textile Award (Shortlisted), 2020

Pride in London Art Competition (Shortlisted), 2020

Bridgeman Studio Award, The Art of Diversity (Shortlisted), 2020

REACH Space, Arts & Humanities Research Institute, King’s College London, 2019

Queer Museology Pop-Up Residency, King’s College London, 2019

HeforShe Artwork Campaign, University of Leicester and Attenborough Arts Centre, 2017

CONFERENCE PAPERS & PUBLIC TALKS

‘The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt’, Norfolk Makers Festival, 13 March 2023

‘Chase of The Wild Goose’, University of Exeter and Bookbag, 14 February 2023

‘Queer + Metals’, Midlands Art Centre (mac), Birmingham, 2 February 2023

 

‘Collecting Trans and Non-Binary Material Culture’, Queer History and Heritage Workshop, King’s College London, 27 June 2022

‘Queering Craft: Stitching Identity’, Critical Crafting: Textiles, Universities of Alberta, Manitoba and Victoria, 25 February 2022

‘A Stitch in Time: Fashioning Queer Identities’, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, 14 March 2022

‘First Outing’, The Coast is Queer, a-n Assembly, 28-29 September 2021

‘Queering Collage: The Camp Cut-Ups of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell’, Cutting Edge: Collage in Britain, Tate Britain, 13 October 2021

‘AIDS Quilts’, Histories of Making During States of Emergency, Peopling the Palace Festival 2021, Queen Mary University of London 2021

‘Affect and the Abject: Trash(y) Desires in Queer Artistic Practice’, Association For Art History Annual Conference, 16 April 2021

‘Faggoting: Crafting The Queer Body’, A Not Unruffled Surface: Contemporary Sculpture and Dress, Henry Moore Institute, 24 February 2021

‘Queer Cut-Ups: The Collaged Library Books of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell’, Queering Collage, Collage Research Network, 4 December 2020

‘Queer Craft: Sexuality, Textiles and Art Practice’, LU Arts, Loughborough University, 15 July 2020

‘All That Glitters Is Gold: Queer Worldmaking Practices and Trashy Textiles’, Craft(ing) the Body, University for the Creative Arts, 22 May 2019

‘Cut and Paste: Hannah Höch and the Queer Art of Collage’, Queer Modernisms, University of Oxford, 25-26 April 2019

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