Newcastle University

Introduction

Rachel Wells is an art historian. Her current research interests include the address of responsibility within contemporary art, and the impact of globalisation on contemporary art production and reception. She is also working on a forthcoming book examining the issue of scale in contemporary sculpture.

Background

Before joining the department at Newcastle, Rachel was Tutor in Fine Art (History and Theory) at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University. Previously, Rachel taught at BA and MA level at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she was also Henry Moore Foundation Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. She has taught courses on contemporary art and globalisation, twentieth-century sculpture, the history of photography, the relationship between art and text, and the exhibition of contemporary art.

Rachel completed her MA (2004, Distinction) and PhD (2008) at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Prior to her research in the History of Art, Rachel read English at Cambridge University.

Roles and Responsibilities

Rachel is Lecturer in Art History within Fine Art. She teaches students on the Fine Art degree as well as students from Combined Studies.

Research Interests

Rachel’s research interests encompass modern and contemporary art. Her book on Scale in Contemporary Sculpture (forthcoming, Ashgate Publishing) will propose a theorised account of the recent trend for enlargement, miniaturisation and the life-size in sculpture. In particular, the book traces the impact of postmodern theory on concepts of measurement and exaggeration, and analyses the relationship between this philosophy and the sculptural trend that has developed since the early 1990s.

Other interests include the relationship between sculpture and photography, the address of responsibility within contemporary art, and the impact of globalisation on recent art production and reception.

Recent publications, talks and conference papers include:

In preparation: Scale in Contemporary Sculpture: Enlargement, Miniaturisation and the Life-Size, Ashgate Publishing, publication date January 2013.

Roundtable discussion: 'Representations of Slavery in Neoliberal Times', Newcastle University, May 2012.  

'Scale in Contemporary Sculpture', Ruskin Research Seminar, Oxford University, February 2012. 

AAH Schools' Conference: 'Ways of Seeing: Sculpture', Tate Britain, London, November 2011. 

'Processing the Medium', book review in the Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2011, pp. 306-309.

Talk in the series 'The Digital Photograph and Memory', The Photograhers' Gallery, London, September 2011. 

'Digital Scale: Enlargement and Intelligibility', The Versatile Image: Photography in the Era of Web 2.0, University of Sunderland conference, June 2011.

'Manfred Pernice: Tutti', talk as part of Schnellkritik!, Modern Art Oxford, October 2010. 

'Bearing Responsibility: Santiago Sierra and Martin Creed', Ashmolean Museum and Oxford University History of Art Research Seminar Series, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, November 2009.

'Oldenburg's Travels: The Lagadian Language of Things', Intersections, Association of Art Historians (AAH) 35th conference, April 2009. 

'Beyond Resolution: Thomas Ruf's jpeg photographs of 9/11', Contestations, Association of Art Historians (AAH) 33rd conference, April 2007. 

'The Conway Library's Reed Collection of Nineteenth-Century Tourist Photographs', and 'The Standpoint of the Forsterian Tourist', Archaelogoies of the Standpoint, Courtaud Institute of Art Research Forum Project, March and June 2006, published online.    

Undergraduate Teaching

Rachel is module leader for the first year modules 'Renaissance to Realism: A Critical Investigation' and 'Art and Ideas: An Introduction to Modernism'. She is also module leader for the two modules ‘Contemporary Art and Globalisation’ and 'Modern and Postmodern Photography', which are offered to second and third year students.

Postgraduate Teaching

Rachel is currently co-supervising one PhD student with Professor Wolfgang Weileder.