Louise Benson

About

I am a writer, art critic and editor based in London. I am currently Director of Digital at ArtReview, where I commission widely on the visual arts, film, books and music. I am a trustee of Wysing Arts Centre, where I engage with the economic models that provide direct support for artists, from an active residency programme to subsidised studio space. Previously I was Deputy Editor at Elephant; before that I was Editor-in-Chief of POSTmatter, a magazine about modern life and culture in the digital age. As a writer I am interested in exploring what happens at the edges of the art world, going behind the scenes to hear the stories of those who play a crucial role in the production of art but who often remain invisible. In addition to international artists and photographers, I have interviewed everyone from gallery attendants to life drawing models, and written extensively on the working conditions of the culture industry. I am interested in how art gets made, and in who gets to make it at all. I am also the co-founder of Scenic Views, an independent interiors magazine focused on overlooked design histories that is stocked in bookstores all over the world. As magCulture put it in 2023, “The interiors magazine seems to be going through a bit of a moment, and right now our favourite example of the genre is Scenic Views, the London magazine offering a unique sense of what’s scenic.”