Temple University

Richard Hylton was born in London, England and studied Fine Art at Exeter College of Art and Design between 1987-1990. From the early 1990s, he became actively involved in the UK visual arts sector as an artist and then curator, working for organisations including, Oldham Art Gallery, Autograph (Association of Black Photographers) and University for the Creative arts. He has organised and facilitated a significant number of contemporary art exhibitions involving artists such as Barbara Walker, Ruth Maclennan, Anthony Key and Eugene Palmer. He has also produced several artists’monographs and book works including The Holy Bible: Old Testament by David Hammons (co-produced with Virginia Nimarkoh). 

In 2018, Hylton was awarded a PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London. Between 2019-2021 he was the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by Lecturer in Contemporary Art, at SOAS, London between 2021 and 2025.  

His writing has appeared in UK and US-based art magazines, peer-reviewed journals and publications such as Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, Art Monthly, Burlington Magazine, Panorama, The International Review of African American Art, The Routledge Companion to African American Art History, Failure: Documents of Contemporary Art Series, and Issues in Curating Contemporary Art and Performance. 

His first book-length study The Nature of the Beast: Cultural Diversity and the Visual Arts Sector, A Study of Policies, Initiatives and Attitudes 1976-2006 (2007), has been abridged in The Elgar Companion to the Arts and Global Multiculturalism (2025). Recent projects include Public Library UK Vol 1, After Kenneth Little a limited edition spoken-word vinyl double LP about immigration and its legacies in Britain and Donald Rodney: Art, Race and the Body Politic (2025) published by Bloomsbury. He serves on the international advisory board of Art History Journal.

Selected Work

Hylton, R. (2025). Donald Rodney: Art, Race and the Body Politic (London: Bloomsbury).

Hylton, R. (2025). ‘Facing History: The Significance of Joe Overstreet’s Facing the Door of No Return’ (1993) Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight, (ed.) Natalie Dupêcher, The Menil Collection, Houston, (New Haven: Yale University Press). 

Hylton, R. (2024).  Public Library UK Vol.1, After Kenneth Little – A limited edition spoken-word vinyl double LP about immigration and its legacies in Britain.Liner notes by Eddie Chambers and Salomé Voegelin. 

Hylton, R. (2025). (excerpt) The Nature of the Beast: Cultural Diversity and the Visual Arts Sector - A Study of Policies, Initiatives and Attitudes 1976- 2006 (2007), Bath: University of Bath/Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts), in The Elgar Companion to the Arts and Global Multiculturalism, (eds.) Sneja Gunew, Nikos Papastergiadis, Fazal Rizvi, Paula Muraca. (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing).

Hylton, R. (2022). ‘Bridging the Gap: The Postwar Era and the Significance of John Biggers’s Ananse’, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, special issue ‘African American Art in the International Arena’, (ed.) Eddie Chambers, Issue 50, May, 48-62. 

Hylton, R. (2020). ‘In Retrospect: The Significance of Faith Ringgold at the Serpentine Gallery, London’, The International Review of African American Art, Special Issue ‘Black Atlantic Dialogues’ edited by Eddie Chambers, April, 34-39.

‘Decolonising Art History’, Art History, January 26-28,  https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8365.12490

Hylton, R (2020). ‘The Art of Social Distance in the Era of #Black Lives Matter’, Opinion, Art Review,www.artreview.com

Hylton, R (2019). ‘Decolonising the Curriculum’, Art Monthly, May, No.426, 11-19.

Hylton, R. (2019). ‘Status and Presence: African American art in the International Arena’ The Routledge Companion to African American Art History, (ed.) Eddie Chambers (Abington: Routledge), 275-288. 

‘Eugene Palmer and Barbara Walker: Photography and the Black Subject’, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, Special Issue, ‘Black British Art Histories’, (ed.) Eddie Chambers, November, Issue 45, 100-113.

Hylton, R (2017). ‘Black Art UK/US’, Article about two contrasting survey exhibitions ‘Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power’ and ‘The Place is Here’, Art Monthly, October No.410, 13-17.