Gloria Sutton

File:Gloria Sutton Headshot.png]]

Gloria Hwang Sutton (born August 20, 1972) is an American contemporary art historian whose scholarship focuses on art, technology, and feminism. Her work investigates how computational networks have influenced the production, reception, and historiography of visual art since the 1960s, approached through an intersectional lens that foregrounds gender, race, and equity.{{Citation |last=Cook |first=Sarah |title=On Curating New Media Art |date=2013 |work=Preserving and Exhibiting Media Art |pages=389–405 |editor-last=Noordegraaf |editor-first=Julia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wp6f3.18 |access-date=2025-06-27 |series=Challenges and Perspectives |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |jstor=j.ctt6wp6f3.18 |isbn=978-90-8964-291-2 |editor2-last=Saba |editor2-first=Cosetta G. |editor3-last=Le MaTre |editor3-first=Barbara |editor4-last=Hediger |editor4-first=Vinzenz}}

Academic and professional career

Sutton is an Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Northeastern University. She is also a Research Affiliate in the Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT) program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).{{Cite web |date=June 25, 2025 |title=Research Discovery Portal |url=https://discover-research.northeastern.edu/scholar/15507/GLORIA-SUTTON?unitId=1414&unitType=2 |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=discover-research.northeastern.edu}}

She serves on the advisory committees of the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA), and Boston Art Review, and is on the editorial boards of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and Bloomsbury’s International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics series. Her research has been supported by institutions such as the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Getty Research Institute.{{Cite web |title=Gloria Sutton – Grantees – Arts Writers Grant |url=https://www.artswriters.org/grant/grantees/grantee/gloria_sutton |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=www.artswriters.org}}{{Cite web |date=December 1, 2021 |title=The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Announces 2021 Grantees |url=https://warholfoundation.org/2021/12/01/the-andy-warhol-foundation-arts-writers-grant-announces-2021-grantees/ |access-date=June 25, 2025 |website=The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts}}{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Board of Directors |url=https://voca.network/board/gloria-sutton/ |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=voca.network}}{{Cite web |title=Gloria Sutton |url=https://www.bostonartreview.com/people/gloria-sutton |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Boston Art Review |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Gloria Sutton – Grantees – Arts Writers Grant |url=https://www.artswriters.org/grant/grantees/grantee/gloria_sutton |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=www.artswriters.org}}

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From 1997 to 2002, Sutton served on the advisory board of Rhizome, a pioneering nonprofit for born-digital art, helping to develop foundational frameworks for exhibiting, archiving, and theorizing internet-based practices.{{Cite web |last=sutton |first=gloria |title=Gloria Sutton – Northeastern University |url=https://neu.academia.edu/GloriaSutton |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=neu.academia.edu |language=en}}

Her editorial career began at Afterimage, where she focused on the underrepresentation of minority voices in art criticism. She later became the inaugural editor of Art Journal Open, where she expanded the role of digital scholarship and public engagement in contemporary art history. Sutton co-curated the large-scale urban art exhibition in Los Angeles titled How Many Billboards? Art In Stead, organized by the MAK Center. She has also held curatorial roles at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.{{Cite web |last=Hodge |first=Brooke |date=2010-02-18 |title=Seeing Things {{!}} The Art of the Billboard |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/seeing-things-the-art-of-the-billboard/ |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=T Magazine |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=How Many Billboards? Art In Stead |url=https://www.makcenter.org/shop/p/how-many-billboards-art-in-stead |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=MAK Center for Art and Architecture |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |last1=Greene |first1=Rachel |last2=Sutton |first2=Gloria |last3=Fuller |first3=Matthew |date=2002-04-01 |title=Voiceover |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/afterimage/article/29/5/10/189476/Voiceover |journal=Afterimage |language=en |volume=29 |issue=5 |pages=10 |doi=10.1525/aft.2002.29.5.10 |issn=0300-7472}}File:Radical Softness- The Responsive Art of Janet Echelman.jpg]]

Her first book, The Experience Machine: Stan VanDerBeek’s Movie-Drome and Expanded Cinema (MIT Press), was the first comprehensive study of VanDerBeek’s multimedia work and was translated into French in 2023, with a foreword by Olafur Eliasson.{{Cite web |title=Gloria Sutton: The Experience Machine, Stan VanDerBeek's Movie-Drome and Expanded Cinema |url=https://calendar.northeastern.edu/event/gloria_sutton_the_experience_machine_stan_vanderbeeks_movie-drome_and_expanded_cinema |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Northeastern University |language=en}}

She has collaborated with artists including Jennifer Bornstein, Anna Craycroft, and Sara VanDerBeek, editing the first monograph on the latter. From 2016 to 2018, she worked with Renée Green on exhibitions and programming at Harvard’s Carpenter Center, culminating in the publication of Renée Green: Pacing (D.A.P., 2021). She also edited Radical Softness: The Responsive Art of Janet Echelman, the first comprehensive study of Echelman’s climate-responsive, large-scale soft sculptures.{{Cite web |title=Radical Softness |url=https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/radical-softness |access-date=2025-06-24 |website=Chronicle Books |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Meet the Contributors: Gloria Sutton |url=https://www.shahgargfoundation.org/gloria-sutton |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Shah Garg Foundation |language=en-US}}

Sutton’s writing has appeared in numerous landmark museum catalogues and scholarly publications, including:

Shigeko Kubota: Liquid Reality (MoMA){{Cite web |title=Shigeko Kubota: Liquid Reality – Hardcover |url=https://store.moma.org/products/shigeko-kubota-liquid-reality-hardcover |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=MoMA Design Store |language=en}}
Shigeko Kubota: A Matter of Memory: Shigeko Kubota’s Video Sculptures (MoMA){{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Gloria |date=Sep 17, 2021 |title=A Matter of Memory: Shigeko Kubota's Video Sculptures |url=https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/627 |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=www.moma.org}}
Barbara T. Smith: The Way to Be (ICA LA)
Bruce Nauman: Neons, Corridors, Rooms (Hangar Bicocca)
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors (Hirshhorn Museum)
Art in the Age of the Internet: 1989 to Today (ICA Boston)
Julia Scher: Maximum Security Society (Museum Abteiberg/DISTANZ)
Katalin Ladik: Ooooooooo-pus (Haus der Kunst)
Steina: Playback (Buffalo AKG Art Museum and MIT List Visual Arts Center)

Sutton's teaching, writing, and curatorial work advocate for feminist infrastructures, collective authorship, and the recognition of underappreciated cultural labor. She is a frequent speaker at cultural institutions globally.{{Cite web |title=Art + Design Professor Gloria Sutton Speaks at International Symposium Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Bauhaus |url=https://camd.northeastern.edu/news/professor-gloria-sutton-speaks-at-bauhaus-symposium/ |access-date=2025-06-24 |website=College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2023-11-15 |title=Inevitable Distances: A Conversation between Renée Green and Gloria Sutton {{!}} Barnard College |url=https://barnard.edu/events/inevitable-distances-conversation-between-renee-green-and-gloria-sutton |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=barnard.edu |language=en}}

Education

Sutton earned her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed the Whitney Independent Study Program. She received her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).{{Cite news |date=2005-08-07 |title=Gloria Sutton and Henry Rath |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/fashion/weddings/gloria-sutton-and-henry-rath.html |access-date=2025-06-25 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |title=Ph.D. Recipients |url=https://arthistory.ucla.edu/ph-d-recipients/ |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Art History |language=en}}

Selected public talks

Max Wasserman Forum: "Another World" (April 2021, MIT List Visual Arts Center) Participated in panel discussions "What are we Building?" and "What are the Barriers?" alongside Hito Steyerl.{{Cite web |date=2022-01-13 |title=2021 Max Wasserman Forum on Contemporary Art: Another World {{!}} MIT List Visual Arts Center |url=https://listart.mit.edu/calendar/2021-max-wasserman-forum-contemporary-art-another-world |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=listart.mit.edu |language=en}}
In Conversation: Gloria Sutton & Nancy Valladares (April 5, 2025, ICA Philadelphia){{Cite web |last=Clottey |first=Brittany |date=2025-03-22 |title=In Conversation: Gloria Sutton, American Artist, and Nancy Valladares – ICA Philadelphia |url=https://icaphila.org/events/programs/in-conversation-gloria-sutton-american-artist-and-nancy-valladares/ |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Institute of Contemporary Art – Philadelphia, PA |language=en-US}}
The Contemporary Austin – “In Conversation: Gloria Sutton, Josh Kline & Alex Klein” (November 13, 2024) Discussion in conjunction with the Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses exhibition.{{Cite web |title=In Conversation: Gloria Sutton, Josh Kline & Alex Klein Presented in Conjunction with Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses |url=https://thecontemporaryaustin.org/event/in-conversation-gloria-sutton-josh-kline-alex-klein-presented-in-conjunction-with-carl-cheng-nature-never-loses/ |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=The Contemporary Austin |language=en}}

Selected bibliography

= Books =

Radical Softness: The Responsive Art of Janet Echelman, Chronicle Books, 2025.{{Cite web |title=Radical Softness |url=https://papress.com/products/radical-softness |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=PA Press |language=en}}
Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest, Phaidon Press, 2016.
The Experience Machine: Stan VanDerBeek’s Movie-Drome and Expanded Cinema, MIT Press, 2015.{{Cite journal |last=Petersen |first=Stephen |date=2016-10-01 |title=The Experience Machine: Stan VanDerBeek's Movie-Drome and Expanded Cinema |url=https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_r_01314 |journal=Leonardo |volume=49 |issue=5 |pages=473–474 |doi=10.1162/LEON_r_01314 |issn=0024-094X}}{{Cite web |title=Gloria Sutton - Team – bauhaus imaginista |url=http://www.bauhaus-imaginista.org/team/4320/gloria-sutton |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=www.bauhaus-imaginista.org |language=en}}

= Selected essays and publications =

“The Politics of Breath,” in Atem/Breath, De Gruyter, 2022.
“My Stakes are Not Your Stakes,” in Storytellers of Art History, Intellect Publishers, 2021.{{Cite web |title=Storytellers |url=https://www.alpeshkpatel.com/anthologies-special-journal-issues |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Alpesh Kantilal Patel |language=en-US}}
“Acts of Dispersion in Renée Green’s Within Living Memory,” in Renée Green: Pacing, 2020.
“Algorithmic Behavior,” in Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence, 2020.{{Cite web |title= |url=https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/43334/1/AdrianaMiramontesOlivas_ETDFinal_2022.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241117073515/https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/43334/1/AdrianaMiramontesOlivas_ETDFinal_2022.pdf |archive-date=2024-11-17 |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=d-scholarship.pitt.edu |url-status=live }}
“Hans Haacke: Works of Art, 1963–72,” in Hans Haacke: All Connected.{{Cite web |title=Prints |url=https://archive.newmuseum.org/print-ephemera/16548 |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=New Museum Digital Archive |language=en}}
“Elaine Summers’s Intermedia,” in Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done, MoMA, 2018.{{Cite web |title=Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done – Paperback |url=https://store.moma.org/products/judson-dance-theater-the-work-is-never-done-paperback |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=MoMA Design Store |language=en}}
“Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular,” Woman’s Art Journal, Spring/Summer 2018.{{Cite journal |last=Sutton |first=Gloria |date=2018-03-22 |title=Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular. |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=02707993&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA666017401&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Woman's Art Journal |language=English |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=43–46}}
“CTRL ALT DEL: The Problematics of Post Internet Art,” in Art in the Age of the Internet, 2018.{{Cite journal |last=Sutton |first=Gloria |date=2018-01-01 |title="CTRL ALT DEL: The Problematics of Post Internet Art," Art in the Age of the Internet edited by Eva Respini (New Haven, CT: ICA Boston and Yale University Press, 2018):58- 65. |url=https://www.academia.edu/38083723 |journal=Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today Edited by Eva Respini}}
“The Human-Machine Interface,” in 3D DoubleVision, LACMA, 2018.{{Cite book |last1=Salvesen |first1=Britt |title=3D: double vision |last2=Banchoff |first2=Thomas |last3=Drysdale |first3=Eric E. |last4=Huhtamo |first4=Erkki |last5=Rottman |first5=Zachary |last6=Sutton |first6=Gloria |date=2018 |publisher=Los Angeles County Museum of Art |others=Nicholas Barlow, Los Angeles County Museum of Art |isbn=978-3-7913-5668-6 |location=Los Angeles}}
“The Principle of Self Organization,” in Rosa Barba: The Color Out of Space, 2016.{{Cite book |last1=Barba |first1=Rosa |title=The color out of space: Rosa Barba |last2=Huldisch |first2=Henriette |last3=Brooks |first3=Victoria |last4=Sutton |first4=Gloria |date=2016 |publisher=MIT List Visual Arts Center |others=List Visual Arts Center |isbn=978-0-9853377-9-7 |location=Cambridge, Mass}}
“Intentional Communities,” in Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957, 2015.{{Cite web |title=Communitas … After Black Mountain College - Articles – bauhaus imaginista |url=http://www.bauhaus-imaginista.org/articles/4324/communitas-after-black-mountain-college |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=www.bauhaus-imaginista.org |language=en}}
“Image as Action,” in Rite of Passage: Vienna Actionism, 2014.{{Cite web |title=Rite of passage : the early years of Vienna actionism 1960–1966 : Günter Brus, Hermann Nitsch, Otto Muehl, Rudolf Schwarzkogler / editor, Hubert Klocker {{!}} Smithsonian Institution |url=https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_1032367 |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=www.si.edu}}
“Remarks on the Writings of Renée Green,” in Other Planes of There, Duke University Press, 2014.{{Cite web |title=Other Planes of There |url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/other-planes-of-there |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=www.dukeupress.edu |language=en}}

= Reviews of ''The Experience Machine: Stan VanDerBeek’s Movie-Drome and Expanded Cinema'' =

Johanna Gosse, “A Machine in the Garden,” Oxford Art Journal, 2018.{{Cite journal |last=Gosse |first=Johanna |date=2018 |editor-last=Sutton |editor-first=Gloria |title=?A Machine in the Garden? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48560612 |journal=Oxford Art Journal |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=127–131 |doi=10.1093/oxartj/kcx047 |jstor=48560612 |issn=0142-6540}}
Michael Corris, “Not Virtual,” Art History, Spring 2017.{{Cite web |last=Corris |first=Michael |date=2017 |title=Not Virtual Art History |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317833511 |access-date=June 25, 2025 |website=Research Gate}}
Craig J. Saper, “The Other/ness Media Machine,” Rhizomes, 2017.{{Cite web |last=Saper |first=Craig |date=2017 |title=The Other/ness Media Machine Review by Craig Saper |url=http://www.rhizomes.net/issue32/pdf/saper.pdf |access-date=June 24, 2025 |website=Rhizomes}}
Stephen Petersen, “The Experience Machine,” Leonardo Reviews, 2016.{{Cite web |title=Leonardo Reviews |url=https://leonardo.info/reviews/feb2016/sutton-peterson.php |access-date=2025-06-24 |website=Leonardo/ISASTwith Arizona State University |language=en}}
A.S. Hamrah, “The Experience Machine,” Cineaste Magazine, Fall 2015.{{Cite web |title=Home |url=https://www.cineaste.com/fall2015 |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Cineaste Magazine |language=en-US}}

References

Category:1972 births

Category:Living people

Category:ArtAndFeminism

Category:Contemporary art

Category:Art critics

Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni