Queer Art in Britain since the 1980s – Call for Papers

British Art Studies invites contributions for a special issue of the journal that explores the 1980s as a crucial conjuncture for queer art in Britain, and which considers how the after-effects of this period influence a queer present. From this present, in which queer art and artists have achieved some institutional access, we ask:

What does refocusing attention on the 1980s offer to artists, historians and curators of queer art in Britain today?

and

How might a return to the 1980s help us attend to the shifting practices, meanings and possibilities associated with queer art in Britain over the last forty years?

We are interested in contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Queer art practices in the 1980s, in any medium.
• Practices from the 1990s to the present influenced by queer art, theory and politicised practices in the 1980s.
• Queer art produced and/or shown outside London.
• How the term “queer” was reclaimed and given new meaning, through art and theory.
• The specificities of queer practice and politics in the British context.
• Queer art and its intersections with anti-imperialism and anti-racism in the 1980s and after.
• Exhibitions of queer art and artists from the 1980s to the present.
• The impact of HIV/AIDS and/or Section 28 on art in Britain.

Please submit abstracts of 200 words or less to the editors at [email protected] by 11:59pm on Sunday, 7 May 2023. Full submission guidelines, including further information about the special issue, can be found on the call for papers.