Emeritus Professor
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Jean has taught extensively on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at the University for the Creative Arts and continues to supervise doctoral research.
Bio
Jean Wainwright is an internationally recognised art historian, curator, critic and broadcaster specialising in contemporary art, photography and the artist interview. Her research is distinguished by the Audio Art Archive, established in 1996, which comprises more than 2,000 interviews with internationally renowned artists, photographers, filmmakers, curators and cultural practitioners. Of these, 177 interviews are held in the Tate Archive and available online. Her extensive work with artist interviews, including contributions to Audio Arts, has informed numerous publications, exhibitions and research projects.
Jean has published widely in academic journals, edited volumes, exhibition catalogues and monographs, with particular expertise in the life and work of Andy Warhol. She served as series consultant and archivist for the three-part BBC Two documentary Andy Warhol's
America (2022) and curated Andy Warhol: My True Story at Newlands House Gallery (2025).
She has appeared on television and radio programmes including Woman’s Hour, Today Programme, Channel Four and the BBC.
Her international curatorial projects include My Search for Andy Warhol's Voice (2011–12), Ship to Shore: Art and the Lure of the Sea (2014), The Data Battlefield (2017), Gestures of Resistance (2017), Powerful Tides: 400 Years of Chatham and the Sea (2018) and Documents from the Edges of Conflict (2021–22).
Her professional practice extends to major public art and cultural commissions, including projects associated with Crossrail, the Eden Project, Heathrow Terminal 2, Ebbsfleet Valley and BT Connected World, working with organisations including Futurecity and FuturePace.
She has also documented major international art events, including Frieze London, Art Basel in Basel and Miami, the Venice Biennale and The Armory Show in New York. She is editor of STATE/F22 magazine and serves on the steering committee of Fast Forward: Women in Photography.
Research statement
Jean's research examines the relationship between contemporary artistic practice, oral testimony, archival documentation and the construction of art histories. Central to her methodology is the artist interview, which she approaches as a critical form of historical evidence, investigating questions of authenticity, authorship, memory and self-representation.
A significant strand of her scholarship focuses on Andy Warhol, particularly the intersections between artistic identity, celebrity, performance and mass-media representation. Her publications, curatorial projects and broadcasting work investigate the ways in which Warhol's artistic persona and cultural legacy have been constructed, circulated and reinterpreted.
Her research also addresses the historical visibility of women artists and photographers, examining how recorded testimony can recover overlooked artistic practices and challenge established narratives. This includes her research on women photographers and her contribution to Women in Photography: A History of British Trailblazers at The Lightbox, Woking (2019).
Research supervision
Current UCA research students:
- Cindy Hong
- Camille Serisier
- Alex Gow
Completed UCA research students:
- Richard Couzins
- Rossella Emmanuelle
- Dee Honeybun
- Zhongjing Jiang
- Matt Johnson
- Liv Pennington
- Elizabeth Ransom
- Marie Therese Shortt
- Erin Solomons
- David Summerill
- Manuel Vason
- CiOJ: (Chartered Institute of Journalists).
- 1985 to date: Freeman of the City of London (admitted 1985).
- 2010-to date :Consultant Future City.
- 2022-to date Board Member Bermondsey Project Space.
- 2010-to date Selector Prix Pictet Prize.
- London Metropolitan University (2017)
- Kingston University (2021)
- Winner of IVCA award for the Art Newspaper TV
- Freeman of the City of London
Works in International Collections
- Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawi. Pańska 3. Interview transcript and sound CV to accompany the acquisition of Eichmann and the Angel (2005) by Gustav Metzger
- Royal Academy of Arts, London. Bryan Kneale RA. (Radio documentary). Pilot for series commissioned by the Royal Academy Mar 2011. Conceived by Jean Wainwright; Interviewer/presenter Jean Wainwright; Co-produced with Rhys Davies
- Tate Gallery. London Audio Arts Archive. Acquired by Tate 2006. 177 interviews by Jean Wainwright online http://www.tate.org.uk/
Media enquiries
For media enquiries, please contact our Press Office Team: pressoffice@uca.ac.uk.