Dr Suhail Malik

Suhail’s research is on the theme of invention in contemporary European philosophy and critical theory.

Staff details

Position

Programme Co-Director MFA Fine Art, Reader in Critical Studies

Department

Art

Email

s.malik (@gold.ac.uk)

Recent research — accessible here and here — includes:

Books

On the Necessity of Art's Exit From Contemporary Art (forthcoming)
ContraContemporary. Modernity's Unknown Future (Urbanomic, 2019)

Co-editor

The Flood of Rights - edited w/ Tom Keenan & Tirdad Zolghadr (CCS/Sternberg, 2017)
The Time-Complex. Postcontemporary - edited w/ Armen Avanessian (DiS/Name, 2016)
"Art and Finance" Special Issue of Finance and Society 2:2 - edited w/ Gerald Nestler (2016)
Genealogies of Speculation: Materialism and Subjectivity Since Structuralism - edited w/ Armen Avanessian (2015)
Realism Materialism Art - edited w/ Christoph Cox & Jenny Jaskey (CCS Bard/Sternberg, 2015).

Essays and Articles

"Operationalising Real Abstraction: Art and the General Abstract Image" (w/ Diann Bauer and Natalia Zuluaga) in In the Mind But Not From There (2019)
"The Ruling Elite Have Feelings Too (At Least, They Did in 2011)" in OIE (2019)
"Propaganda Is Now Another Name for Communication Itself" (w/ Metahaven) in PSYOP (2018)
"ContraContemporary" in The Future of the New (2018)
"The Artist as Quarry" (w/ Tirdad Zolghadr) in The Artist As... (2018)
"Introduction: Art and Finance" (w/ Gerard Nestler) in Finance and Society 2:2 (2016)
"Plotting the Art Market: Interview with Clare McAndrew" (w/Gerard Nestler) in Finance and Society 2:2 (2016)
"When is Contemporary Art?" in Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989 (2016)
"The Speculative Time-Complex" (w/ Armen Avanessian) in The Time-Complex. Postcontemporary (2016)
"Materialist Reason and Its Languages. Part One: Absolute Reason, Absolute Deconstruction' in Genealogies of Speculation (2016)
"Introduction: Speculative Genealogies" (w/ Armen Avanessian) in Genealogies of Speculation (2016)
"Hegemonic Neomaterialism and Its LImitations" in Springerin (2016)
"Response to Questionnaire: On Matter and Materialisms" (w/ Christoph Cox) in October 155 (2016)
"The Ontology of Finance" in Collapse 8: Casino Real (2014)
"The Value of Everything" in Texte zur Kunst (2014)
"Ape Says No" in Red Hook Journal (2013)
"The Politics of Neutrality: Constructing a Global Civility" in The Human Snapshot (2013)
"Tainted Love: Art’s Ethos and Capitalization” (with Andrea Phillips) in Art and Its Commercial Markets (2012)
“The Wrong of Contemporary Art: Aesthetics and Political Indeterminacy” (with Andrea Phillips) in Reading Rancière (2011)
“Screw (Down) The Debt: Neoliberalism and the Politics of Austerity” in Mute (2010)
“You Are Here” for Manifesta 8 (2010)

Talks

"Contemporary Art -> Ex-Art: Retrotransfiguration of the Commonplace" at PNAC Portland and Rupert, Vilnius (2018)
"Systemic Constructions of an Unnarratable Future" at New Narratives 2: Thinking Economics Differently, Kunstgebäude Stuttgart (2018)
"Capitalising AntiGentrification" at Realty, Paul Klee Sommerakademie, Bern (2017)
"What Can Be Done With a White Cube?" at LIRCAIE, Lusanga, DRC (2017)
"What Must Art Become to Advance a Left Postneoliberalism? at Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2017)
"PostCapitalism or PostNeoliberalism?" at Postcapitalist Art?, Bartlett School of Architecture, London (2017)
"PostGlobalisation or PostNeoliberalism? The Case of the ArtMarket" at ArtStage, Singapore (2017)
"Financiality, Finance, and Futurity" at Capital as Power: Broadening the Vista, York University, Toronto (2016)
"Formal and Informal Institutionalism: Contemporary Art Again and Again" at Making Use, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2016)
"How is Contemporary Art Contemporary?" at KRW Düsseldorf (2016)
"51.9810940, 5.9051470" at DAI (2016)
"Who's Afraid Of/In the Art Market?" at Sandberg Institute (2016) and ICA Miami (2015)
"Art Has To Be a State Actor" at Mystery–Ministry. The Aesthetic Sphere and the Discourse of Professionalism, UTD, Buenos Aires (2015)
“Why Art? The Primacy of Audience” at Global Art Forum, Dubai (2011)

Publications and research outputs

Book

Towards a Socio-Psychologistical Theory of Fatiscism Malik, Suhail. 2002. Towards a Socio-Psychologistical Theory of Fatiscism. White Cube. ISBN 0954236335

Book Section

Curating-at-Large: Notes Towards a Sufficiently General Category Malik, Suhail. 2025. Curating-at-Large: Notes Towards a Sufficiently General Category. In: Bridget Crone; Bassam El Baroni and Matthew Poole, eds. The Edinburgh Companion to Curatorial Futures. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Xenotemporality and Time-Complexes: Recomposing Time for Non-Experiential Risks Bauer, Diann and Malik, Suhail. 2023. Xenotemporality and Time-Complexes: Recomposing Time for Non-Experiential Risks. In: Gary Zhexi Zhang, ed. Catastrophe Time! London: Strange Attractor Press, pp. 210-228. ISBN 9781913689674
Error Malik, Suhail. 2022. Error. In: Ilan Manouach and Anna Englehardt, eds. Chimeras: Inventory of Synthetic Cognition. Athens: Onassis Foundation, pp. 181-184. ISBN 9786188536180

Time-machine Architectonics Malik, Suhail. 2021. Time-machine Architectonics. In: Lukas Kubina, ed. 2038: The New Serenity. Munich: Sorry Press, pp. 82-88. ISBN 9783982044040
The Global Value Chain of the White Cube Malik, Suhail. 2019. The Global Value Chain of the White Cube. In: Anthony Downey and Els Roelandt, eds. Critique in Practice: Renzo Martens’ "Episode III: Enjoy Poverty". Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp. 304-317. ISBN 9783956795053
Operationalizing Real Abstraction: Art and the General Abstract Image Bauer, Diann; Malik, Suhail and Zuluaga, Natalia. 2019. Operationalizing Real Abstraction: Art and the General Abstract Image. In: Gean Moreno, ed. In the Mind But Not From There: Real Abstraction and Contemporary Art. New York: Verso. ISBN 9781788730693
Why Spatial Politics? Malik, Suhail. 2019. Why Spatial Politics? In: José Roca, ed. Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection. Miami, Florid: [NAME] Publications, pp. 381-387. ISBN 9780997494068
Propaganda Is Now Another Name for Communication Itself: Conversation with Metahaven and Suhail Malik Malik, Suhail; Kruk, Vinca and van der Velden, Daniel. 2018. Propaganda Is Now Another Name for Communication Itself: Conversation with Metahaven and Suhail Malik. In: Karen Archey and Gwen Parry, eds. PSYOP. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Musem. ISBN 9783960983620
ContraContemporary Malik, Suhail. 2018. ContraContemporary. In: Thijs Lijster, ed. The Future of the New: Artistic Innovation in Times of Social Acceleration. Amsterdam: Valiz, pp. 247-278. ISBN 9789492095589
Artist As Quarry Malik, Suhail and Zolghadr, Tirdad. 2018. Artist As Quarry. In: Tara MacDowell; Aileen Burns and Jonah Lundh, eds. The Artist As... Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp. 49-73. ISBN 978-3-95679-275-5
Interview with Suhail Malik Malik, Suhail and Vengrytè, Alberta. 2018. Interview with Suhail Malik. In: Jogintė Bučinskaitė, ed. VDA interviu: Meno Mokykla (En: VD Interviews: Art School). Vilnius, Lithuania: Vilnius Academy of Arts Publishing House, pp. 108-123. ISBN 9786094472985
Art Teaching: Dialectics of Practice and Theory Mabb, David and Malik, Suhail. 2017. Art Teaching: Dialectics of Practice and Theory. In: Peter Sonderen and Marijn de Langen, eds. Theory - Arts - Practices. Arnhem: ArtEZ Press, pp. 69-81. ISBN 978-94-91444-39-5
Postface Malik, Suhail and Zolghadr, Tirdad. 2017. Postface. In: Thomas Keenan; Suhail Malik and Tirdad Zolghadr, eds. The Flood of Rights. berlin / Annandale on Hudson, New York: Sternberg Press / Center for Curatorial Studies Bard College, pp. 261-275. ISBN 978-3-95679-140-6
When is Contemporary Art? Malik, Suhail. 2017. When is Contemporary Art? In: Simon Sheikh and Maria Hlavajova, eds. Former West: Art and the Contemporary after 1989. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262533836
The Speculative Time Complex Malik, Suhail. 2016. The Speculative Time Complex. In: Suhail Malik and Armen Avanessian, eds. The Time Complex: Postcontemporary. Miami, Florida: [NAME], pp. 7-56. ISBN 9780984056616
Materialist Reason and its Languages. Part One: Absolute Reason, Absolute Deconstruction Malik, Suhail. 2016. Materialist Reason and its Languages. Part One: Absolute Reason, Absolute Deconstruction. In: Suhail Malik and Armen Avanessian, eds. Genealogies of speculation : materialism and subjectivity since structuralism. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 238-268. ISBN 9781472591678
Introduction: Speculative Genealogies Avanessian, Armen and Malik, Suhail. 2016. Introduction: Speculative Genealogies. In: Suhail Malik and Armen Avanessian, eds. Genealogies of speculation : materialism and subjectivity since structuralism. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 1-26. ISBN 9781472591678
Reason to Destroy Contemporary Art Malik, Suhail. 2015. Reason to Destroy Contemporary Art. In: Christoph Cox; Jenny Jaskey and Suhail Malik, eds. Realism Materialism Art. Berlin/Annandale-on-Hudson: Sternberg Press / Center for Curatorial Studies Bard College, pp. 185-190. ISBN 9783956791260
'Introduction' Cox, Christoph; Jaskey, Jenny and Malik, Suhail. 2015. 'Introduction'. In: C Cox; J Jaskey and Suhail Malik, eds. Realism Materialism Art. Berlin / Annandale on Hudson, New York: Sternberg Press / Center for Curatorial Studies Bard College, pp. 15-31. ISBN 978-3-95679-126-0
The Ontology of Finance: Price, Power, and the Arkhéderivative Malik, Suhail. 2014. The Ontology of Finance: Price, Power, and the Arkhéderivative. In: , ed. Collapse: Philosophical Research and Development. 8 (629) Falmouth: Urbanomic, pp. 629-812. ISBN 978-0-9567750-2-3
Tainted Love: Art’s Ethos and Capitalization Phillips, Andrea and Malik, Suhail. 2012. Tainted Love: Art’s Ethos and Capitalization. In: Maria Lind and Olav Velthuis, eds. Art and its Commercial Markets: A Report on Current Changes and with Scenarios for the Future. Berlin/Stockholm: Sternberg Press/Tensta Konsthall, pp. 209-240. ISBN 978-1-934105-99-3
The Wrong of Contemporary Art: Aesthetics and Political Indeterminacy Malik, Suhail and Phillips, Andrea. 2011. The Wrong of Contemporary Art: Aesthetics and Political Indeterminacy. In: Paul Bowman and Richard Stamp, eds. Reading Rancière: Critical Dissensus. London: Continuum, pp. 111-128. ISBN 978 1 4411 9037 6
The wrong of contemporary art: aesthetics and political indeterminacy Phillips, Andrea and Malik, Suhail. 2011. The wrong of contemporary art: aesthetics and political indeterminacy. In: Paul Bowman and Richard Stamp, eds. Reading Rancière. London: Continuum, tbd-tbd. ISBN 978-1441137814
You Are Here Malik, Suhail. 2010. You Are Here. In: Bassam el-Baroni; Jeremy Beaudry and Nav Haq, eds. Manifesta 8: The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Region of Murcia (spain) in dialogue with northern Africa. Milan: Manifesta, pp. 58-61. ISBN 97888 3661697 8
Untitled Malik, Suhail. 2008. Untitled. In: Pil and Galia Kollectiv, ed. Institute of Psychoplasmics. London: Pump House Gallery, pp. 30-62. ISBN 978 0 954467
Measure for Measure Malik, Suhail. 2008. Measure for Measure. In: Juan Bolivar, ed. Geometry Wars. Southampton: John Hansard Gallery, xvii-xxi. ISBN 978 0854328932
Art - critique - capital Malik, Suhail. 2007. Art - critique - capital. In: Bridget Crone and Kirsty Ogg, eds. The Showroom annual 2005/6. London: Showroom, p. 38.
On the Compostability of Painting Malik, Suhail. 2006. On the Compostability of Painting. In: No named editor, ed. Nigel Cooke: Paintings 2001-2006. Koenig Books, pp. 22-32. ISBN 3865600662
Painting as Contemporary Art Malik, Suhail. 2002. Painting as Contemporary Art. In: No Named Editor, ed. Painting as a Foreign Language. Centro Brasileiro Britanico, pp. 8-17. ISBN 8588116073
Pathological Normality Motamedi-Fraser, Mariam. 2000. Pathological Normality. In: Charles Campbell and Suhail Malik, eds. Front. Don Projects, pp. 39-74. ISBN 978-0953904303

Article

Risk Exposure — Surfeit Futurity Malik, Suhail. 2021. Risk Exposure — Surfeit Futurity. Making & Breaking(2),
After the Collapse: Architecture for the 99% Malik, Suhail. 2020. After the Collapse: Architecture for the 99%. Art of the Working Class(120), p. 33.
Freedom at the Expense of Others: A Roundtable on Free Speech Black, Hannah; Chen, Howie; James, Jamillah; Kurian, Ajay and Malik, Suhail. 2019. Freedom at the Expense of Others: A Roundtable on Free Speech. Frieze(202), pp. 132-138. ISSN 0962-0672

Show/Exhibition

Gewalt Malik, Suhail. 2004. Gewalt. In: "Gewalt", Loushy Art and Editions, 2/19/2004 - 3/19/2004.

Conference or Workshop Item

Time and Time Again Bauer, Diann and Malik, Suhail. 2019. 'Time and Time Again'. In: Digital Earth Symposium. Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon 19 - 20 April 2019.
Capitalist Artist Scum #1 and #2 Reckitt, Helena; Malik, Suhail; Yuile, Laura; Kulendran Thomas, Christopher; Kulesh, Leslie; Cameron, Angus; Pil & Galia, Kollectiv; DKUK, DKUK; Pollard, Alexander James and Luke, Kristin. 2015. 'Capitalist Artist Scum #1 and #2'. In: FORUM: Capitalist Artist Scum. Open School East, London, United Kingdom 24 September 2015-11 November 2015.
Resistance or invention? Art and global capital assemblage Malik, Suhail; Phillips, Andrea and Beech, Amanda. 2007. 'Resistance or invention? Art and global capital assemblage'. In: Local operations. Sackler Centre of Arts Education at the Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom 23 May - 1 July 2007.

Edited Book

The Flood of Rights Keenan, Thomas; Malik, Suhail and Zolghadr, Tirdad, eds. 2017. The Flood of Rights. Berlin / Annandale on Hudson, New York: Sternberg Press / Center for Curatorial Studies Bard College. ISBN 978-3-95679-140-6
Genealogies of speculation : materialism and subjectivity since structuralism Malik, Suhail and Avanessian, Armen, eds. 2016. Genealogies of speculation : materialism and subjectivity since structuralism. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781472591678
The Time Complex: Post-Contemporary Avanessian, Armen and Malik, Suhail, eds. 2016. The Time Complex: Post-Contemporary. Miami, Florida: [NAME]. ISBN 9780984056606

Edited Journal

Finance and Society Malik, Suhail and Nestler, Gerald, eds. 2016. Finance and Society, Finance and Society, 2(2). 2059-5999
PARSE Journal Issue # 2 The Value of Contemporary Art Bowman, Jason; Malik, Suhail and Phillips, Andrea, eds. 2015. PARSE Journal Issue # 2 The Value of Contemporary Art, PARSE Journal Issue # 2 The Value of Contemporary Art, 2. 2002-0511

Printed Ephemera

Asset | Data | Intensity. Curating Without Meaning Malik, Suhail. 2023. Asset | Data | Intensity. Curating Without Meaning.

Research Interests

Contemporary Art, Modern Art, the political economy of critical art, sovereignty and domination, critiques of liberal democracy, finance capital.
My initial research was on the theme of the invention in contemporary European philosophy and critical theory. This line of inquiry led to an examination of new media and digitisation which in turn generated three strands of research: first, an examination of technics in relation to human experience and thought; second, examination of particular artpractices in a variety of media; third, consideration of the conditions of critique and violence in contemporary democratic societies. This latter dimension has recently become the focus my research interests and I am currently working on a book examining the challenge to received notion of critique presented by contemporary manifestations of dominating power, primarily that of the US.