Introduction
Art Research Group was established in 2009 in London by visual artist Jakub Dolejs and social work professor Ken Moffatt.
Jakub Dolejs' photo-based and installation work considers art history and modes of representation. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally and in Canada including the National Gallery of Canada. Dolejs is a recipient of numerous grants from the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.
Ken Moffatt's contribution to Art Research Group builds on previous interest in process, intersubjectivity and community. Ken has published in the fields of cultural studies, gender, and poststructuralism. Moffatt is a professor at Ryerson University, where he has taught courses focussed on queer studies, processes of marginalization as well as globalization and social welfare. His book A Poetics of Social Work considers historic claims for social welfare knowledge in Toronto. He is the editor of a book on masculinities in Toronto currently under review.
Art Research Group conducts unorthodox and indefinite cultural studies. We manage a library of solicited contributions by artists, philosophers, cultural activists and others. The participants choose the form of their contribution, be it video footage, written essay, images, audio. Unlike traditional cultural studies our projects do not have a specific agenda or goal tied to an institution. Neither do we seek to elicit definitive answers. Our intent is to open up a meaningful intellectual discourse without the constraints of academic form or the need of results that often accompanies formal studies.
It is important to us to keep the range of opinions and the form of the contributions as open as possible. Our position is that of “facilitators with a light touch.” Our role is to attend to a process without restricting contributions to premeditated forms. We seek contributions from top thinkers in their field around the world. We will shortly be opening a discussion on this website. We also maintain an archive of physical works sent to us. This library is available to anyone who’s interested.
To date we have developed two thematic enquiries 1) Cultural Cities and 2) Dailiness and Relational Artistic Expression. Both of these thematic enquiries have received a great deal of attention within the literature (Artforum, Tate Journal, New York Times Review) and through major gallery showings (The anyspacewhatever Show at Guggenheim Museum in New York City fall/winter 2008-2009; the Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009 show at the Tate Britain in London).