The Exploitation of Isolation: Urban Development and the Artist's Studio

This article engages a survey of the studio's genealogy in the West, from industrialisation to finacialisation, in order to analyse the shifting relationship between changing conditions of capitalist urban development and the practices and identity of artists. Today, the studio is perhaps one of the last vestiges of creative-led regeneration strategies. We set out to understand why this is, how the studio has itself changed, what its new functions are and how this transforms artists’ lives, artwork and their relationship to the city.