Robert Atkins
Advisory Committee

Robert Atkins is a UC Berkeley-trained art historian and writer working at the intersection of art and politics. A long-time Village Voice columnist, he has written for more than 100 publications spanning the globe, and lectured and taught widely throughout the world. He is the author of the best-selling art guides ArtSpeak: A Guide to Contemporary Ideas, Movements & Buzzwords, its modern-art prequel ArtSpoke, as well as co-author of Censoring Culture: Contemporary Threats to Free Expression. His latest book, Dissent or Descent? Art & Politics in the Age of the Culture Wars will be published in 2024.

A Research Fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s STUDIO For Creative Inquiry, he began creating pioneering online resources in 1995 including TalkBack: A Forum for Critical Inquiry, Artery: The AIDS-Arts Forum and, most recently, ArtSpeak China.org. He has curated exhibitions at venues including the Sao Paulo Bienal and, in New York, Just Above Midtown and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. The co-curator of From Media to Metaphor: Art About AIDS, the first international traveling exhibition devoted to AIDS, he is also a co-founder of Visual AIDS, the creators of “Day With(out) Art” and the “Red Ribbon Project.” He is a former board member of the US branch of the International Art Critics’ Association (AICA) and the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including several from the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. He currently lives in Desert Edge and Idyllwild in Southern California and, resides online, at www.RobertAtkins.net.

Photo credit: Warren Neidich