Writing

Writing is an essential extension of my artistic practice — a space for reflection, research, and dialogue between art, society, and lived experience. My texts explore the cultural, economic, and ecological conditions of artistic work, often focusing on how artists navigate value, labour, and identity within contemporary systems.

I write across formats: from peer-reviewed papers and conference contributions to essays and articles for art publications. My doctoral research examined the shifting social role of the artist from “genius” to “professional” within late capitalism, a theme that continues to inform my practice.

Recent writing has appeared in The Reykjavík Grapevine and Myndlist á Íslandi, engaging with the socio-economic realities of artists in Iceland, as well as in earlier publications for a-n Magazine, PARADOX Fine Art European Forum, and Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Through both academic and journalistic forms, I aim to make visible the entanglement between artistic production, ecology, and social responsibility — to write, as I make, in conversation with the world around me.

 

Published Papers

  • Telese, E (2025) - Survey of Icelandic Artists’ Living Wage and Livelihoods, commissioned by SÍM The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists, presented in October 2025 to the Icelandic Ministry of Culture.
  • Telese, E (2025) - Undoing The Romanticisation Of The Starving Artist, The Reykjavík Grapevine, April 2025, cover feature.
  • Telese, E (2025) - A Place to Work, Reflections on artists’ studio spaces in Iceland, Myndlist Á Islandi, Issue 5.
  • Telese, E (2022) - Félagshagfræðilegt gildi listafólks á íslandi: verðug umræða . Artists’ socio-economic value in iceland: a discussion worth having Myndlist Á Íslandi, issue 2.
  • Telese, E (2021) - The making of the artist, from 'genius' to 'professional': social value and individualisation in UK visual artists, 1980–2010. Loughborough University. Thesis. https://doi.org/10.26174/thesis.lboro.16732468.v1.
  • Telese, E (2009) - The Gift Controversy. Presented at "Creative industries and Regional policies: Making Space and Giving Space", The Regional Studies Association Research Network on Creative Industries and the Regions, University of Birmingham September 2009.
  • Telese, E et al (2009) - The profession of the artist in the real world: how does academic study and research relate to the art ecosystem? Dynamics and dialogue beyond academia, towards professional practice in Europe, in Telese, E, Cummins, S, Wiecherink, A, Pybus, A, Atherton, K and Malleo, M A, “Transition and Progression in Fine Art Education and Research” - PARADOX: The Fine Art European Forum, Accademia di Belle Arti, Palermo, September 2009  - published on https://paradoxfineart.net/paradox/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Paradox-palermo.pdf.
  • Telese, E (2007) - Shaping artists’ spaces -The Networking Artists’ Networks initiative and the reshaping and enabling of cultural space , within “Sensi/able Spaces - Space, Art and the Environment “ - SPARTEN conference, Reykjavík, June 2006 published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007 Shaping Artists Spaces looks at the distribution of networks as shared space for creativity and artistic representation.
  • Telese, E (2007) Ed. - Trade-Off, an a-n The Artists’ Information Company publication about the art market from an economic, social and artist-led regeneration point of view.

In addition to the above, Dr Telese has written in more than 40 articles for major UK artists’ advocacy publication, A-N Magazine (Artists’Newsletter) between 2009 and 2015, now available on the A-N archive on www.a-n.co.uk. Here is a selection.

 

Selected a-n (Artists’ Newsletter) articles/resources by Emilia Telese