Anthony Davies

Anthony Davies (b 1965) is a London based artist, writer, independent researcher and organiser, currently working as a lecturer in the Fine Art department at Central Saint Martins College, and with the Wealth of Negations group, coordinating communications for the migrant-led Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union (CAIWU).

As a writer on art, politics and economics Davies has published in numerous journals. In the late 1990s, along with Simon Ford, he developed a series of critical debates on young British art (yBa) and the Creative Industries, introducing the dystopian figure of the cultural entrepreneur or ‘Culturepreneur’. This was followed by series of articles in Mute Magazine on the neoliberal transformation of cultural and educational institutions with ‘Culture Clubs’ (2000), ‘Back to Basics’ (2004) and ‘Take Me I’m Yours' (2007). Later texts including 'There is No Alternative: The Future is Self-Organised Parts 1 & 2', co-written with Stephan Dillemuth and Jakob Jakobson, can be found in various publications.

In addition to Wealth of Negations, Davies is also a founder member of MayDay Rooms, an educational charity based in London and set up in 2011 as a safe haven for historical material linked to social movements and experimental culture. He has co-organised or participated in a range of self-organised initiatives including Posterstudio, Infopool, Copenhagen Free University, Flaxman Lodge, Department of Walls and Space, Rosa Kerosene, 10th Floor and more recently, with Reverso set up a DIY wireless communications and self-archiving platform with autonomous cultural spaces in the Peripheries/Favelas and Workers Occupied Houses of São Paulo, Brazil.