Matthew James Holman is a writer and academic based in London.
I write on
literature
and the visual arts, especially in relation to questions of conflict and
diplomacy, historical materialism, and the avant-garde. I completed a PhD in American cultural history at University College London, and have held research or postdoctoral fellowships at Yale, The Smithsonian, The Courtauld, the Paul Mellon Centre, and the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies in Berlin, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
My first book, Curating Modern Life: Frank O’Hara at the Museum of Modern Art, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury in autumn 2025.
My work has appeared in
Apollo,
The Art Newspaper (where
I often contribute the Big Review feature), Burlington Contemporary, Critical Quarterly, Essays and Studies, Frieze, Jacobin, New Left Review, Poetry Review, The White Review, The Times
Literary Supplement, and elsewhere. I have contributed essays for artist books, international exhibitions, and monographs, including
on
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Daniel Crews-Chubb, Françoise Gilot, Emily Kraus, Christopher Le Brun, Megan Rooney, Gideon Rubin, Yves Tanguy, and Mark
Wallinger. I am a member of the International Association of Art Critics
(AICA) and have lectured extensively on contemporary art and curatorial practice, including at
The Barbican, The Guildhall, and The Slade. I am currently Lecturer in Literature and Fine Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, and continue to lecture in American art history at The Courtauld.
For enquiries, please email me at matthew.james.holman@gmail.com.
