Artist, Curator, Researcher
ABOUT
Dr Daniel Fountain (he/they) is an artist, curator, and researcher. They are currently Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture and Director of Postgraduate Research at the University of Exeter (UK).
Fountain's practice centers on traditional textile and needlework techniques, exploring themes of marginality and queerness through a 'non-binary' approach that transcends the artificial hierarchies between art and craft. Their "scavenger methodology" involves reclaiming discarded materials and found fabrics, coupled with a powerful strategy of linguistic reclamation. From a giant "big girl's blouse" to the use of needlework techniques like "faggoting" and materials such as "gimp" thread, Fountain reappropriates derogatory terms, transforming them into sites of playful defiance. Working with waste materials in ‘sloppy’ ways that refuse to be straight, clean, or neat, Fountain celebrates the realities and complexities of the queer experience. Fountain's artworks have been exhibited internationally and have been featured in leading publications such as Surface Design Journal, Crafts, Decorating Dissidence, and Embroidery: The Textile Art Magazine. Their PhD by Practice, All That Glitters Is Gold: Queering Waste Through Campy Craft, was funded by the Centre for Doctoral Training in Feminism, Sexual Politics and Visual Culture at Loughborough University.
As a curator, Fountain has extensive experience working with leading arts and cultural organizations. Recent projects include curating an exhibition of Angus Suttie's ceramics and developing an LGBTQ+ public program at the Crafts Council; writing interpretation materials and a catalogue essay for Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art; co-curating First Outing at Grundy Art Gallery and Abingdon Studios; and organizing a symposium for National Museums Liverpool and the Queer British Art Network. They are currently curating two major exhibitions; Queely Made which will open at MIMA (UK) in Spring 2027, and Imagining Utopia, a travelling exhibition in the US of work by queer glass artist Tim Tate.
Fountain is also a prolific writer and researcher. They are the editor of Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism in Contemporary Britain (Intellect Books and the University of Chicago Press, 2023) and the author of the monograph Queer Crafts: Material Practices and the Making of Identity (Bloomsbury, 2026). Their writing has appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals, including MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture, GLQ, TEXTILE: Cloth and Culture, and Art History. They have presented research papers and keynote presentations at numerous museums and galleries, including the Whitworth Art Gallery, Midlands Arts Centre, the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, the Museum for Art in Wood, and Tate Britain.
EDUCATION
PhD in Feminism, Sexual Politics and Visual Culture, Loughborough University
MA in Arts and Cultural Management, Distinction, King’s College London
BA in Fine Art and English Literature, First Class Honours, Aberystwyth University
TEACHING
2023-Pr – Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture, University of Exeter
2021-23 – Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture, University of Exeter
2021-21 – Senior Research Assistant (Art & Performance), Manchester Metropolitan University
2018-21 – Lecturer in Creative Arts and Design, 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
I have also been a visiting academic across the UK, US and Canada at: University of British Colombia, University of Victoria, University of Manitoba, University of Alberta, Kent State University, Arts University Bournemouth, University of Southampton, Oxford Brookes University, University of Glasgow, and Royal School of Needlework.
SELECT 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
2026 ‘Queer Craft: Book Club’, Crafts Council, 28 January 2026.
2025 ‘Craft Meets Scholarship’, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, 19 November 2025.
2025 ‘Crafted with Pride’, Oxford Brookes University, LGBTQ+ History Month, 12 February [Keynote].
2024 ‘We Live in a Society: Responding to Trans Digital Culture Through Ceramics’, Resistance and Resilience: Gender/Sexuality in Digital Culture, University of Exeter, 16 May 2024 [Keynote].
2024 ‘Local Ecologies’, Paul Mellon Centre ECRN Away Day, 8 March 2024.
2023 ‘The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt’, Norfolk Makers Festival, 13 March 2023.
2023 ‘Chase of The Wild Goose’, University of Exeter and Bookbag, 14 February 2023.
2023 ‘Queer + Metals’, Midlands Art Centre (mac), Birmingham, 2 February 2023.
2022 ‘Collecting Trans and Non-Binary Material Culture’, Queer History and Heritage Workshop, King’s College London, 27 June 2022.
2022 ‘Queering Craft: Stitching Identity’, Critical Crafting: Textiles, Universities of Alberta, Manitoba and Victoria (online), 25 February 2022.
2022 ‘A Stitch in Time: Fashioning Queer Identities’, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, part of Coventry UK City of Culture and the exhibition Daniel Lismore: Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken, 14 March 2022 [Keynote].
2021 ‘First Outing’, The Coast is Queer, a-n Assembly (online), 28-29 September 2021.
2021 ‘Queering Collage: The Camp Cut-Ups of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell’, Cutting Edge: Collage in Britain, 1945-Now, Tate Britain (Online), 13 October 2021.
2021 ‘AIDS Quilts’, Histories of Making During States of Emergency, Peopling the Palace Festival 2021, Queen Mary University of London, 18 June 2021.
2021 ‘Affect and the Abject: Trash(y) Desires in Queer Artistic Practice’, Association For Art History 2020 Annual Conference, University of Birmingham (Online), 16 April 2021.
2021 ‘Faggoting: Crafting The Queer Body’, A Not Unruffled Surface: Contemporary Sculpture and Dress, Henry Moore Institute (Online), 24 February 2021.
2020 ‘Queer Cut-Ups: The Collaged Library Books of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, 1959-1962’, Queering Collage, Collage Research Network (Online), 4 December 2020.
2020 ‘“The worst pandemic in human history”? Queer waste and the politics of (in)visibility, from HIV/AIDS to COVID-19’, COVID-19 Waste Colloquium, University of Exeter (online), 27 November 2020.
2020 ‘Queer Craft: Sexuality, Textiles and Art Practice’, LU Arts, Loughborough University (online), 15 July 2020.
2019 ‘All That Glitters Is Gold: Queer Worldmaking Practices and Trashy Textiles’, Craft(ing) the Body, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, 22 May 2019.
2019 ‘Cut and Paste: Hannah Höch and the Queer Art of Collage’, Queer Modernisms, University of Oxford, 25-26 April 2019.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2025 Kennedy Ting Foundation, Curatorial Research Grant
2025 Research Publications Grant, Design History Society
2025 SWW DTP Project Grant
2025 Public Engagement with Research Fund (Research England)
2024 AHRC/Clore Fellowship Research Grant
2024 Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Research Grant
2024 Project Monograph Grant, University of Exeter (Research England)
2023 Crafts Council, Queer Craft Grant
2023 Paul Mellon Centre, Publication Grant
2023 University of Glasgow, Research Grant
2023 The Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery, Exhibition Grant
2023 Working Class Creatives Database, Exhibition Grant
2023 Craftspace, Queer + Metals Grant
2023 Exeter Phoenix, Producer Grant
2022 Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
2022 Arts and Culture Exeter, Creative Research Grant
2021 Queer/Disrupt Art Award (Runner Up)
2021 Arts Council England and UKNA, Future Producers Grant
2021 Association For Art History, Scholarly Research Grant
2021 Paul Mellon Centre, Research Continuity Fellowship
2021 Pasold Research Fund, Research Activity Grant
2021 The Henry Moore Foundation, Research Grant
2020 Vlieseline Fine Art Textile Award (Shortlisted)
2020 Pride in London Art Award (Shortlisted)
2020 Bridgeman Studio Award, The Art of Diversity (Shortlisted)
2019 The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH), Conference Grant
2019 Queer Museology Residency, King’s College London
2019 Arts and Humanities Research Institute, King’s College London
2019 Loughborough University, John Guest Phillips Prize
2019 Loughborough University, Dennis Holt Travel Scholarship
2018 Loughborough University, Graduate Studentship
2017 HeforShe Commission, University of Leicester and Attenborough Arts Centre
2017 King’s College London, Outstanding research award
2015 King’s College London, Graduate Scholarship