Gillian Mciver writes about art, cinema and travel.

BA, MA, BFA, MFA, PhD, FHEA

I’m Gillian McIver, writer, author, curator, filmmaker.

checking out 2020’s Frieze Sculpture show in London

I love to write about cinema, art and interesting places. I love to go to places like the Wallace Collection and write about the astonishing things in there.

My first book is about how films are based on, inspired by and intentionally or unintentionally constantly intersect with art.

This book came out in 2016 and is a best seller 🙂

between realism and the sublime — My most recent book is Art and the Historical Film: Between Realism and the Sublime.

Author

I wrote Art History for Filmmakers: The Art of Visual Storytelling (Bloomsbury Press 2016). It’s the first book of its kind, both a rich journey into the history of art and film, and a practical guide to using visual art from the past to stimulate and enrich contemporary filmmaking.

Listen to the interview I did about the book with Kirsten Ellsworth of the New Books Network. Listen here

Writer

I work as a freelance writer and a consultant to writers of non-fiction. See the Consultancy link above for more info. Some of the books I have contributed to include Critical Cities, Screening the Art World, Scenography and Art History, The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire, ReFocus: The Films of Abel Ferrara. My published articles are available on https://www.clippings.me/users/gillianmciver

Stage and Screen Writer

I am the writer of the play Apologia, about the life of Count Alessandro Cagliostro, which will premiere in 2024 at the Camden Fringe Festival.

I wrote the screenplay for Zippo, directed by R.V. Williams, and the text for Postindustrial Baroque.

Filmmaker

My most recent film as director is “Taking Over The King’s Land” (2014), about London’s biggest solo-artist street art project, covering a whole condemned East London housing estate with murals.

I co-produced the documentary “Image Matters” (dir. Rozy Sarkis, 2012) a feature documentary about the culture of cosmetic surgery in Lebanon.

I worked as camera operator and also participated as a performer in the acclaimed feature doc “Estate A Reverie” and the short “Towards Estate” both directed by Andrea Luka Zimmerman (2015).

Artist and curator

My most recent curatorial role was for the exhibition ‘Alchemy!’ in London 2022.

Passionately inspired by Urban Exploration, I co-founded the site-specific live art group Luna Nera and directed the short film “Postindustrial Baroque” (2009) which explores the exciting abandoned urban spaces the group worked in. Some of my art projects are here at www.artsite.org.uk

I run the website sitespecificart.org.uk which features many articles written by me and articles I commissioned by others. In 2018 I co-hosted the symposium ART AND THE URBAN at the University of London.

I am a co-director of the commissioning agency Creative City. I have curated many exhibitions and I ran the East London gallery and screening room STUDIO75 (2010-2013).

Please use the menu to find out more about what I do and have a look at some of my work.

Have fun!