Paul Gladston is the inaugural Judith Neilson Professor (Chair) of Contemporary Art at the University of New South Wales, Sydney (2018-ongoing). He was previously Professor (Chair) of Contemporary Visual Cultures and Critical Theory (2015-2018), Director of the Centre for Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures (2012-2018) and Associate Professor in Culture, Film and Media (2010-2014) at the University of Nottingham (UK). Prior to that, he was seconded from the University of Nottingham to serve as inaugural Head of the School of International Communications and Director of the Institute of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China (2005-2010). Under his leadership, the School of International Communications at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China grew from 38 undergraduate students in 2005-6 to over 250 undergraduate and postgraduate students and 1,000 language learners in 2009-10. During his time at the University of Nottingham, Paul received "exceeds expectations" awards on six occasions.

Paul was Visiting Professor at Sotheby’s Institute, London (2016-2018) and the Sichuan China Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing (2009), and was a distinguished speaker at the 'China-Britain Cultural Dialogue Conference', Trinity College, University of Oxford - part of events accompanying president of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping's state visit to the UK (2015). As an undergraduate student, he was an Ellen Battell Stoeckel scholar, Yale University (1985) and an Andrew Grant travelling scholar, Edinburgh College of Art (1986). He is the recipient of a Greenshield Award for Drawing (1986).

Paul received a Masters degree and a PhD in Critical Theory from the University of Nottingham, the first in Europe to establish a dedicated centre for critical theory. He has written extensively about contemporary art with particular reference to the concerns of critical theory and has impacted significantly for more than a decade on the development of a critically-informed Chinese Contemporary Art Studies, within and outside greater China. His book-length publications include Contemporary Chinese Art: A Critical History (Reaktion 2014), which received "publication of the year" at the Awards of Art China (2015). His most recent monograph, Contemporary Chinese Art, Aesthetic Modernity and Zhang Peili: Towards a Critical Contemporaneity (Bloomsbury 2019) has been described as "a landmark work" and "essential reading". He is currently co-editing the collection, Visualising Chinese Borders in the 21^st Century (Leuven University Press), an output of an AHRC (UK) funded research project of which Paul was a named investigator and the first book-length publication to address the subject. He is also co-authoring a book, Dis-/Continuing Traditions: Critical Interventions with Confucian Aesthetics by Chinese Women Artists, with Dr Lynne Howarth-Gladston, in addition to co-organising an online international symposium, Rethinking the Curation of Chinese Contemporary Art: toward "post-West" art worlds, political economies, spatial practices and historiographies, which will be staged in conjunction with the School of Art History and Archeology, University of Maryland, University Park MA (April 2021).

Paul is inaugural lead co-editor of the peer reviewed book series Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics (Palgrave Macmillan 2019-ongoing) and was founding principal editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (Intellect 2014-2017), the first of its kind in any language. He was an academic adviser to the internationally acclaimed exhibition "Art of Change: New Directions from China", Hayward Gallery-South Bank Centre, London (2012). He is deputy editor of the peer reviewed book series, Contemporary Chinese Art (Springer 2014-ongoing) and contributing editor to the journal, Eyeline (2010-ongoing). He is, in addition, an editorial or advisory board member to numerous journals, including: Modern China Studies, The Journal of Visual Art Practice, Culture and Dialogue, Chinese Contemporary Art Studies, and di'van - a Journal of Accounts.

Essays and scholarly captions by Paul have been published in numerous exhibition catalogues, including in support of exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery-South Bank Centre, London; Powerhouse Museum, Shanghai; Galerie Jaeger-Bucher, Paris; Fundación Francisco Godia, Barcelona; Flowers Gallery, London; Long Museum, Chongqing; Broad art Museum, Michigan; Arriata Beer Gallery, Berlin; Aroundspace Gallery, Shanghai; and Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai. A scholarly essay by Paul Gladston and Lynne Howarth-Gladston will be republished in a catalogue accompanying an exhibition of the work of the artist Fu Xiaotong at Chambers Fine Art, New York and Beijing (2021).  

Paul was "Author of the Month" (January 2013) at the Zentrum für Kunst and Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (ZKM) website: "(Re-) Constructing Contemporary Chinese Art: Towards a Polylogue between International and Chinese Theoretical Paradigms". Other ZKM authors of the month include the internationally renowned scholars, Prof James Elkins (Chicago) and Prof Terry Smith (Chicago). The invitation to contribute came as a result of Paul's work as an academic adviser to "Art of Change: New Directions from China".

He was co-curator - with Dr Lynne Howarth-Gladston - of the ground-breaking exhibition, "New China/New Art: Contemporary Video from Shanghai and Hangzhou", Djanogly Gallery, University of Nottingham (2015). Lynne and Paul are currently co-curating two exhibitions: "Dis-/Continuing Traditions: Contemporary Video and Sound Art from China", Salamanca Art Centre, Hobart, Tasmania (19 February-7 March 2021); and "Dis-/Continuing Traditions: Contemporary Art from China", Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney (April-May 2021). 

Paul is co-organiser - with UNSW Judith Neilson post-doctoral researcher, Dr Yu-Chieh Li - of the "UNSW Presents" Seminar series at the 4A Center for Asian Art, Sydney (2019-ongoing). He was also moderator and co-organiser - with the Asia Society, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and UNSW Built Environment - of the prestigious annual Lloyd Rees Memorial Lecture (2019), given by Dang Qun, a founding partner at the internationally celebrated architecture firm, MAD Beijing. Paul's recent public talks include "A Closer Look at Contemporary Chinese Art", Ottawa Art Gallery, Canada (2019). He is an expert contributor and op ed. writer to the China Daily newspaper, an expert contributor to the South China Morning Post and a contributing author to Hyperallergic.com, the latter by invitation of the internationally renowned scholar and critic David Carrier. Paul has made numerous media appearances, including for the BBC and China Radio International.

References to Paul's scholarly publications in international artworld contexts include: Frieze https://www.frieze.com/article/paper-tigers; and Artnet News, https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/animal-rights-protest-work-guggenheim-china-show-1092644  https://news.artnet.com/art-world/so-whats-really-going-on-with-that-disturbing-dog-video-at-the-guggenheim-1100417.

Paul's recent book-length publications include:

Contemporary Chinese Art, Aesthetic Modernity and Zhang Peili: Towards a Critical Contemporaneity - Bloomsbury Academic (literature and Philosophy) "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" series, David Carrier and Tiziana Adina eds. (London: Bloomsbury, 2019) ISBN-10: 1350041971 ISBN-13: 978-1350041974

“From the painstaking walk-through of theoretical issues and historical/cultural context appearing in his Prolegomenon, through the concise yet bracing conclusion, Paul Gladston's study of Zhang Peili and contemporaneity is far more than a mere biographical sketch of a single artist; it is a treatise on visual art of the present and China's particularized presence in that sphere. It is a landmark work both in terms of cultural-criticism and art-historical analysis.” –  Paul Manfredi, Professor of Chinese, Pacific Lutheran University, USA

"With its judicious application of critical theory, this book will be essential reading for a better understanding of contemporary Chinese art and visual culture in global contexts." - Jason C. Kuo, Professor of Chinese Art, University of Maryland, USA

"an important contribution to critical discourses on contemporary art...convincingly argues to conceive of contemporary art in general as constituted transculturally" - Birgit Hopfener, Associate Professor of Art History, Carleton University, Canada

“ambitious [elucidation of] the idea of contemporaneity in the present debate about Chinese art.” –  Frank Vigneron, Professor and Chairperson, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Deconstructing Contemporary Chinese Art: Selected Critical Writings and Conversations, 2007-2014 (Heidelberg-Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2016) ISBN 13: 978-3-662-46487-8

“Gladston, first with his Contemporary Chinese Art: a Critical History and now with this volume of selected writings, has distinguished himself as the most brilliant Western scholar working in this field. What makes Gladston's work so indispensable is not only his prose — it is both elegant and precise — but also that he so effectively subjects Chinese work to the same criticality that anyone reasonably would expect for any first-rate writing on art from any country.” - Drew Hammond, award-winning art critic and Exhibitions Director ACE Gallery, Los Angeles

Yu Youhan (Shanghai: 3030 Press and ShanghArt Gallery, 2015) ISBN 13: 978-988-99384-9-9

“The veteran art practitioner Yu Youhan is probably one of the most underrated artists in the contemporary Chinese art world. This monograph by Paul Gladston provides illuminating insights into Yu Youhan’s art in the context of wider critical reflections on society and culture in China. It carries research on contemporary Chinese art a step further in respect of theoretical depth and scholarly standards.” - Bao Dong, principal editor of the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Studies

Contemporary Chinese Art: A Critical History (London: Reaktion and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014) ISBN 13: 978-1-78023-269-0 - ‘Best Publication’, Awards of Art China 2015

“Gladston's work is thorough and concise, theoretically informed and clearly argued. An excellent book ****” – Prof Paul Manfredi, Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle

‘Avant-garde’ Art Groups in China, 1979-1989 (Bristol: Intellect and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013) ISBN 13: 978-1-84150-715-6

“…an original approach…Gladston has performed a signal function in making a good deal of information available now, and indicating many paths for future researchers to follow.” – Prof John Clark, China Journal

Contemporary Art in Shanghai: Conversations with Seven Chinese Artists (Hong Kong: Blue Kingfisher/Timezone 8, 2011) ISBN 13: 978-988-15063-7

Paul Gladston (ed.), China and Other Spaces: Selected Essays from the Research Seminar Series of the Institute of Comparative Cultural Studies, Ningbo 2005-07 (Nottingham: CCCP press, 2009) ISBN 13: 978-1-905510-22-1

Art History after Deconstruction: Is There Any Future for a Deconstructive Attention to Art History? (Auckland: Magnolia Press, 2005) ISBN 1-877354-80-5