Born into a working class community in Warrington in the mid-1960s, I was the first member of my family to go to university. I am an artist, writer, lecturer and researcher. I worked in the collective Freee (with Andy Hewitt and Mel Jordan) between 2004 and 2018. 
 
I studied painting in Leicester Polytechnic for my BA. I did my MA in cultural studies at the Royal College of Art and wrote a thesis on philistinism which led to a book I co-wrote with John Roberts for Verso called ‘The Philistine Controversy’. I am also the author of 'Art and Labour' (2020), 'Art and Postcapitalism' (2019) and 'Art and Value' (2015), which was shortlisted for the Deutscher Memorial Prize.

 

My artworks have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Liverpool biennale and the Istanbul biennale as well as in galleries and museums in Amsterdam, Beirut, Bologna, New York, Graz, Edinburgh, Vitoria, Guangzhou, Porto, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, New Orleans, Vienna, Exeter and London.
 
I completed my PhD at the University of the Arts London on the economics of art. I was Professor of Art at Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg (2015-19). I am Reader in Art and Marxism at Chelsea College of Art.