My work is like graffiti — I’ve left it everywhere. I’ve written essays, reviews, interviews, profiles, journalism, breaking news, cultural criticism, new narrative, experimental, and creative writing for public media, newspapers, books, magazines, journals, catalogues, posters, zines, digital platforms, and other media.
Selected publications include art ltd, Art Practical, Hyperallergic, KQED, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian US, and SFMOMA Open Space. I wrote curated content, Gallery and Museum Critic’s Picks, for more than 10 years for San Francisco Arts Monthly, special to San Francisco Bay Area editions of The New York Times. I have also written press releases, web content, marketing, and other communication materials for galleries, museums, foundations, and nonprofits.
selections
★ Quick Picks
Books
“Rex Ray.” Rex Ray. With Rebecca Solnit and Griff Williams. (Chronicle Books: 2020)
Foreword. “Investing in Artists, Investing in the Greater Good. The Fleishhacker Family Legacy.” Eureka at Thirty Years: Fleishhacker Foundation Artist Fellowships. (Fleishhacker Foundation: 2017)
“Whose Public Space Where: Notes on the Politics of Public Works, Private Interests, and the Spaces in Between.” Public Works: Artists’ Interventions 1970s - Now. With Tanya Zimbardo and Dr. Stephanie Hanor. (Mills College Art Museum: 2015)
Introduction. “Site Specific Installation: Some Historic Context.” Unexpected Art. With Jenny Moussa Spring and Florentijn Hofman. (Chronicle Books: 2015)
New Narrative
★ “A Brief Lesson on Media Bias and Palestine.” Hyperallergic, 2018.
★ “Christian L. Frock on Doris Salcedo,” SFMOMA Open Space, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2012.
★ “Lost and Found: Photographs in the Aftermath of East Japan.” KQED, 2012.
JournaLISM
★ Arts Writer, KQED Arts, San Francisco Bay Area Public Media, 2011 - 2016 (Digital)
“The Most Important Art Essays of the Year” — Ben Davis for artnet news, 2014
Arts & Culture Writer, San Francisco Chronicle, 2014 - 2015 (Print + Digital)
cultural critcism
Critic’s Picks: Museums + Galleries, San Francisco Arts Monthly, special to Bay Area editions of The New York Times, 2009 - 2020 (Print + Digital)
Contributor, art ltd., 2008 - 2013 (Print + Digital)
Founding Contributor, Art Practical, 2009 - 2012 (Digital)
PUblications
“The Fierce Urgency of Now.” Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area. With Rebecca Solnit and Jeff Chang. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2016.
“Exercise of a Collective Power: Artists and the Sticky Challenge of Placemaking.” Print Public. Kala Art Institute, 2015.
“Fabrications of Collective Organized Chaos.” Bulletin: Theory of Survival Publications. California Institute of Integral Studies, 2015.
“Open Ended Discussion: Art Workers and the Occupation.” Artist Bloc. Occupy San Francisco, 2011.
“From the Desk of Christian L. Frock, Here and Now.” Here & Now. Mills College Art Museum, 2010.
Public Scholarship
★ The Susan O’Malley Public Facing Deed of Gift, 2020. With San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Archived by Internet Archive. (Digital)
★ The Conditions of Privilege (Chalk Scroll), 2019. Compiled with my UC Berkeley Global Perspectives seminar students, Fall 2018: Cleary Chizmar, Ashna Choudhury, Reniel Del Rosario, Edward Diven, Saba K. Gebremedhin, Stephanie So-Young Kim, Hazanne Likwong, Ariel Lung, Quinn McNulty, Juliette Mekikian, Madison Rae Nelson, Younie Park, Coco Qiu, Lesly Vazquez, Fonda Xu, Sunny Yu, and Qingqing Zhang. Published and permanently archived by California Digital Library, University of California. (Digital).
★ Prompts for Inclusion: FAQ. Originally commissioned by Art Practical, 2019; poster commissioned by The Worth Ryder Gallery at UC Berkeley’s Department of Art Practice, 2018; special edition risograph published by Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2019; permanently archived by the California Digital Library, University of California, 2019. (Print + Digital)