Ashley Crawford (journalist)

Ashley Robert Crawford is an Australian freelance cultural critic, author, essayist, arts journalist, and academic.
Life and career
Born in Melbourne in 1960 he began his career as a cadet journalist working at The Herald in 1978 where he experienced the gamut of journalistic practice including court reporting, police rounds, politics, and finance before briefly settling into the position of rock critic.
Dissatisfied with the conservative nature of newspaper publishing in 1980, he started a monthly culture magazine called The Virgin Press. Changing the name to Tension (1983-1990), the magazine garnered industry accolades. and contributions from notable writers and artists. During the 1980s he also worked as: a consultant for Lees/West contemporary music touring company; the Director of Artists' Week for the 1986 Adelaide Festival; the editor of Video Week; a senior consultant for WMCC Public Relations; and Assistant Director at the fledgling Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
In 1990 he was offered the position of Communications Manager at The Australian Commission for the Future and editor of the organisation's magazine 21•C that covered technology, science and culture. Neuromancer author William Gibson proclaimed that: "21•C is, flat out, the best looking and most determinedly eclectic pop-futurological publication in the world.” While J.G. Ballard proclaimed the magazine a “brilliant collection of articles that read like news bulletins from the future".
In 1993 he established the international art magazine World Art and moved to Amsterdam. In 1996, Wired magazine commented that: “While most art mags cover the dead and the nearly dead of the art establishment, World Art plays with high-voltage wires in the rain… Young and experimental, this is the art forum to be in.”
After a stint as Executive Producer for ITVWorld.com, Crawford moved to New York City in 2001 to take on the role of Executive Editor at Artbyte magazine.
In 2003 Crawford returned to Australia as Commissioning Editor at Thames & Hudson, overseeing the New Art series. He has overseen a variety of publications and exhibitions, including shows at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, the TarraWarra Biennial, the Australian Experimental Art Foundation (as part of the Adelaide Festival 2016, Adelaide), the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, and the White Night Festival, Melbourne.
Crawford first visited the Gunbalanya region of Arnhem Land in 1998 with artists David Larwill, Peter Walsh and Mark Schaller, working to raise awareness about the then-proposed uranium mine in Kakadu National Park. He has returned regularly, helping to organize artists' camps to the region.
Between 2005 and 2018 he organised several international artist exchanges and tours, encompassing Central Australia, America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
In 2010 he co-founded a hybrid art fair in Melbourne, NOTFAIR.
His PhD thesis was published by Palgrave MacMillan, New York, as Dark Gnosis: Religious Imaging in Millennialist America (2018).
Selected works
Cultural Studies
* 1997: Transit Lounge: Wake Up Calls and Traveller’s Tales from the Future. co-editor, (Gordon & Breach, Sydney/Amsterdam)
* 2018: Dark Gnosis: Religious Imaging in Millennialist America (Palgrave MacMillan, New York)
Visual Arts (Australia)
* 1997: Spray: The Work of Howard Arkley, with Ray Edgar, (Craftsman House)
* 2001: Spray: The Work of Howard Arkley - Updated and Revised, with Ray Edgar, (Craftsman House)
* 2002: Lake Eyre and Beyond: The William Creek Series (Craftsman House).
* 2002: Wimmera: The Work of Philip Hunter (Thames & Hudson).
* 2003: Lines of Fire: Tim Storrier’s Works on Paper (Thames & Hudson).
* 2006: Directory of Australian Art (Craftsman House)
* 2007: Stephen Bush: Gelderland (Santa Fe Museum, New Mexico)
* 2009: Rhys Lee, with Edward Colless (Spencer Design, Melbourne)
* 2011: First Life (Xin Dong Cheng Art Space, Beijing/24HR Art, Darwin)
* 2012: The Art of James Davis (Australian Scholarly Publishing)
* 2016: Transformations: The Art of Sonia Payes (Thames & Hudson)
* 2017: Gareth Sansom Transformer, with Sebastian Smee (National Gallery of Victoria)
* 2017: Photo by Martin Kantor, with Richard Guilliatt (Hardie Grant)
Personal life
Crawford is the son of Bob "King" Crawford, a noted comedian, writer, composer, and painter.

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