Michael Corris is an artist and writer on art. His earliest works were produced while living and working in New York, prior to his participation in the Conceptual Art collective Art & Language (1972-1976).

During the decade of the 1970s, Corris contributed to the journal Art-Language and was among the founding editors of The Fox (1975) and later, Red-Herring (1976). 

Corris’ work continues to be guided by the idea of versatility; the principle whereby an artist engages critically with the conditions and possibilities of expression and critical reflection in the absence of constraints associated with the authority of disciplinary boundaries. A defining feature of this mode of distributed practice in art is the proliferation of mediums and the adoption of multiple cultural roles.

Now a commonplace of contemporary, such “interdisciplinary” art practice seems unexceptional; artists are free to write in the morning, organize exhibitions at noon, and invent community projects or manage an art gallery in the evening. These activities and more are routinely considered to be contents of a holistic practice in art. Yet not every instance of versatility demonstrates critical intent or is based on the need to produce art that disaffirms the leading consensus on art. The critical potential of each project must be clear and open to evaluation.

Corris’ project finds a home in the interstices between the studio, the showroom, the media, and the public. Corris’ method draws on a variety of theoretical models, collaborative working relationships, and expressive mediums, all of which comprise the cognitive efficacy of his project. 

Corris’ work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout North America, Europe, and Australia. Examples of Corris’ art and publications are held in public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), The Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles, CA), Le Consortium Museum of Contemporary Art (Dijon, France), Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK), Tate Gallery (London, UK), Staatsgaleri (Stuttgart, Germany), Château de Montsoreau Museum of Contemporary Art (Montsoreau, France), the Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, TX), and Le Musée des Beaux-Arts (La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland), and The Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas, TX).

Corris’ writings on art have appeared in Art Monthly, Artforum, Art in America, Art History, Art Journal, and Art+Text, among other publications. Some texts have been reprinted in collections, including Alex Alberro & Blake Stimson (eds), Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology (MIT Press, 1999), Terry R. Myers (ed.), Painting (Documents of Contemporary Art) (MIT Press and Whitechapel, London, 2011), and in two volumes devoted to the work of David Diao, edited by Stéphane Mroczkowski & Alexandre Pignol, and published by Mare et Martin, Paris (2020 & 2021).

Corris is the author of Ad Reinhardt (Reaktion Books, London, 2008) and Leaving Skull City: Selected Writings on Art (Les Presses du Réel, 2016); editor of Conceptual Art: Theory, Myth and Practice  (Cambridge University Press, 2004); and series editor for Art Since the 1980s, published by Reaktion Books.