Michael Petry

Michael Petry is an artist, author and Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) London. Petry co-founded the Museum of Installation, was Guest Curator at the Kunstakademiet, Oslo, and was Curator of the Royal Academy Schools Gallery. Petry co-authored Installation Art (1994) and Installation in the New Millennium (2003), and authored Abstract Eroticism (1996), A Thing of Beauty Is... (1997) and The Trouble with Michael (a monograph of his practice, 2001). His book Hidden Histories:...See more

Michael Petry is an artist, author and Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) London. Petry co-founded the Museum of Installation, was Guest Curator at the Kunstakademiet, Oslo, and was Curator of the Royal Academy Schools Gallery. Petry co-authored Installation Art (1994) and Installation in the New Millennium (2003), and authored Abstract Eroticism (1996), A Thing of Beauty Is... (1997) and The Trouble with Michael (a monograph of his practice, 2001). His book Hidden Histories: 20th Century Male Same Sex Lovers in the Visual Arts (2004) accompanied the exhibition "Hidden Histories" that he curated for The New Art Gallery Walsall. Golden Rain (2008) accompanied his installation for the "On the Edge" exhibition for Stavanger 2008, European Capital of Culture. Petry's book The Art of Not Making: The New Artist Artisan Relationship was published in 2011. More recent books accompanying exhibitions include Nature Morte: Contemporary Artists Reinvigorate the Still-Life Tradition (2013) and The Word is ART (2018) for Thames & Hudson. Petry's latest book In League With Devils (2023), which includes a forward by Stephen Fry, was published for his solo show of the same name at the Dadian Gallery, Henry Luce III Centre for the Arts and Religion, Washington DC. See less