Paul O’Neill

Dr. Paul O'Neill is an Irish curator, artist, writer and educator based in Helsinki, Finland. He is the Artistic Director of PUBLICS, since September 2017. PUBLICS is a curatorial agency, contemporary art commissioner, event and exhibition space with a dedicated library and reading room in Helsinki. Between 2013–17, Paul was Director of the Graduate Program at the Centre for Curatorial Studies (CCS), Bard College, New York, where he also curated the extensive exhibition, We are the Centre for Curatorial Studies, at Hessel Museum, (2016–17) and The Visitor Talks Programme (2013–17).

The Paul O'Neill Archives (1993–2024) are part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art Collection, Dublin
Paul has co-curated over 80 shows internationally, including most recently: 24 Hour Tony Cokes, Amos Rex, Helsinki (2025); AA Bronson, General Idea, Art Metropole, PUBLICS, Helsinki (2024); the year-long-evolving exhibition Coalescence Happenstance with All Due Intent, Shimmer, Rotterdam (2024–25); Coalesce Sometime Later, The Showroom, London (2023–24); Coalescence, ADN Platform, Barcelona (2023); Sonic Tonic Assembly, PERFORMA 2023, New York; and the on-going series of solo and COUPLING shows at PUBLICS.

Since 2017, Paul has been a visiting guest professor in MA Curating at the Latvian Academy of Fine Arts and has previously held senior teaching positions at MFA in Curating, Goldsmiths University of London since the late 1990s, and in Visual Culture, Middlesex University, where he received his PhD in 2007. Between 2001 and 2003 he was the Curator of London Print Studio Gallery. From 1997 to 2006 he was Artistic Director of Multiples X, an organisation that commissioned and supported curated exhibitions of artist's editions.

Paul is author of the critically acclaimed book The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s) (MIT Press, 2012), which has been translated into many languages. Paul is widely regarded as one of the foremost research-oriented curators, educators and scholars of curatorial practice, public art and exhibition histories, and has authored and co-edited numerous agenda-setting anthologies on curating. Most recent co-edited books are: Not Going it Alone: Collective Curatorial Curating (Apexart, New York, 2024) and CURIOUS (Open Editions, London, 2024) co-edited with Gerrie van Noord, and Beyond Caring: Para-hosting as Curatorial Escape (Floating Opera Press, 2025). Paul is currently working on another anthology called CURED and will co-curate Survival Kit 18 in 2028 with PUBLICS.