The Writers of Wales Database

ADAMS, HUGH

Email: catalysts@blueyonder.co.uk

Born in Neath, Hugh Adams has written extensively on the arts and cultural matters for over thirty years. He has held significant posts in both Arts and Cultural management and in Higher Education in England. Returning to Wales, as Research Fellow in Artists‘ Professional Development at Cardiff School of Art & Design, he organised a series of Cardiff Symposia which examined interfaces between the artist profession and other disciplines and began writing on Art and arts and cultural matters in Wales, contributing to both Planet and New Welsh Review.

Previously he has been founding Director of Oriel Mostyn, Britain’s first “Art Critic in Residence” - at the University of Northumbria. He has served on many public bodies and advisory boards in England, including those of the Arts Council and both Southern and Northern Arts. For a number of years Chair of Cywaith Cymru, he was on the first Wales at the Venice Biennale Committee and an advisory group on arts commissioning for the Senedd. A former Vice-chair of the Kingswood Foundation, which seeks to raise the potential of young people through the arts, he is now on the management board of Ffotogallery and serves as Assessor of the University Press of Zaragoza. Recently a significant part of his “Outsider Art” collection, formed with his partner Rogelio Vallejo, has been acquired by the University of Sydney and will form the basis of an Australian Outsider Art collection, archive and research centre.

Hugh Adams is a frequent contributor to conferences and symposia concerning the visual arts, art education and cultural matters both here and abroad and has represented Britain in a number of international initiatives. He has also contributed to many publications internationally, including Art and Artists, The Guardian, Modern Painters, O Independente, Artforum, Raw Vision, Art Monthly, Studio International and Flash Art / Heute Kunst.

Selected Publications:
Books and exhibition catalogues:
Art of the Sixties (Phaidon, 1968)
Modern Painting (Phaidon, 1979)
Watermarks (Scottish Arts Council, 1980)
Sixty Seasons (David Nash) (3rd Eye, 1983)
Homenagem a Ted Glass Espaço Lusitano (Oporto, 1983)
After the Fire (Ray Smith) (Spacex Gallery, 1987)
Art Schools, Art Education and the New Century (ELIA, Helsinki, 1998)
The Image of the Heavenly in Relicta (Ffotogallery  / Cambridge Darkroom, 1999) 
Imaging Wales (Seren / Wales Arts International, 2003)
This House Today is a Theatre… (Chapter, 2004)
Mapping the Field in Groundbreaking: The Artist and the Changing Landscape (Seren, 2005)
Against the Fire (Peter Burke) (Spectrum Gallery, 2006)
Re: Imaging Wales (Seren, 2006)

Published lectures:
Good Taste, a Sense of Responsibility, Clear Skin and a Sense of Humour in Creativity and Self-Deception (Gregynog Conference) (Arts Council / Aberystwyth University, 1979)

Contributed to:
Books and exhibition catalogues:
Alexander Rodchenko: the Simple and the Commonplace (contributor) (Artforum, NYC Summer 1979)
The Greatest Sculptor in the World (co–writer) (Howard Gardens Gallery, 2000)
Gimlet Eye (contributor) (Chapter, 2001)
Haha: Margam Revisited (contributor) (Seren, 2002)
Picturing Cardiff (contributor) (CVAF, 2002) 
Elsewhere (contributor) (A.G. Swansea, 2003)
The House Project (contributor) (Chapter, 2004)
Re-Views: Artists and Public Space (contributor) (Black Dog Publishing, 2005)
What Artists Need (contributor) (Cywaith Cymru, 2005)
Groundbreaking (contributor) (Seren, 2005)
Without Borders: Outsider Art in an Antipodean Context (contributor) (Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2008)

Published lectures:
Out of the Bubble (contributor) (London Arts / The London Institute, 2001) The Business of Being an Artist (contributor) (City University, London, 2000)