Julian Myers

Julian Myers is an art historian whose writing has appeared in Documents, October, Afterall, Frieze, and elsewhere. His research is concentrated on sculpture and spatial politics in the 20th century, the social and political dynamics of consumer society, and the sociohistorical frameworks for contemporary art and exhibition. Myers is the author of numerous monographic essays on the practices of Tariq Alvi, Trisha Donnelly, Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer, Eric Wesley, and the Independent Group, among others—most recently “Total Relaxation,” published in Sudden White: After London (Dexter Sinister 2009), “Totality: A Guided Tour,” on Harald Szeemann’s 1983 exhibition "The Tendency to a Synthesis of the Arts" (Afterall, 2009), and a feature on the artist Sterling Ruby in Frieze, 2009.

Lately Myers has also pursued a series of projects he has theorized as "para-historical," expanding upon Jean-François Lyotard’s "anarchist science" and radical forms of historiography. These include experimental and dialogical lectures, “drift-histories,” and Riot Show, a structured presentation of archival and bootleg recordings of concerts where the audience attacks the performers and stops the performance.

In 2009 Myers received an Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital / Warhol Foundation for Mirror-Travel in the Motor City, a book collaboratively written with artist Edgar Arceneaux on earthworks, drawing, Detroit, urban warfare, and guerrilla historiography.

Myers is an assistant professor at California College of the Arts, where he teaches art history and theory. Recent courses have addressed the history of exhibitions since 1800; earthworks, space and utopia in the United States after 1960; avant-gardist practices in the Soviet Union, Europe, Brazil, and elsewhere; the history and theory of consumer society; and a seminar on Harald Szeemann, total artwork, and exhibition form.