Writer, artist, curator and senior lecturer, Exeter
Queer theory is at the centre of artist, curator and researcher Daniel Fountain’s engagement with craft. Fountain is senior lecturer in art history and visual culture at the University of Exeter, where their research focuses on representations of gender and sexuality in contemporary visual culture. This is a key concern in their art, too, which makes use of discarded materials and objects to explore marginalised identities – an approach Fountain has described as ‘non-binary’, blurring the boundary between art and craft. Fountain has led a range of workshops, symposiums and shows at institutions including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, the Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, K11 Art Foundation in Hong Kong and National Museums Liverpool. In 2022, as part of the 50th anniversary of Pride in the UK, they developed and led workshops under the title ‘Crafting with Pride’ in collaboration with the Crafts Council, as well as curating a showcase of works by the Scottish ceramicist Angus Suttie in its London gallery. In 2023 Fountain edited Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism in Contemporary Britain, a collection of essays, oral histories and creative responses on queer craft in Britain since the 1980s, and their book Queer Crafts: Materiality, Identity, Contemporary Practice will be published by Bloomsbury in 2025.