Dr Ruth Pelzer-Montada is an artist and scholar with a particular interest in print media. She holds a PhD in art practice, a BA(hons) in Painting from ECA and an undergraduate and postgraduate degree  in German Literature and Political Science from the University of Heidelberg. She has taught Visual Culture and contemporary art theory across the Schools of Art and Design at Edinburgh College of Art, and other Scottish art colleges while pursuing her research through both artistic projects and writing. Her work has been exhibited in Scotland and abroad. Her writing has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals, conference publications and specialist journals. Her anthology, Perspectives on contemporary printmaking, critical writing since 1986 was published by Manchester University Press in 2018.

As a lecturer at ECA and other national and international art colleges,  Ruth has taught a wide range of art and design-related subjects over the course of more than thirty years, at undergraduate and postgraduate level, both in the studio and seminar room. Specialist undergraduate courses developed by Ruth include the history and theory of photography; postcolonial and identity theories in relation to art as well as general courses on art and visual communication in the modern period. At Masters level she has contributed to art theory and curating courses. She is currently largely involved in PhD supervision and admission.

The juncture of art practice and visual and material culture discourses are at the centre of Ruth’s research. Her teaching and research are closely intertwined. Since 1998 her artistic practice has involved printmaking and installation. Her critical and theoretical concerns in turn have been informed by her artistic practice. The notion of ‘repetition as difference’ serves as a practical and poetic metaphor for this interweaving of a multi-dimensionally understood ‘practice’ and ‘theory’ relationship. Ruth's specific research focus has been the shaping of and contribution to the development of a critical discourse on print media in the context of contemporary art.

She is a member of the Material/Technê/Materialisms and Futurity / Society / Action ECA research clusters.

In addition to developing her artistic practice and curatorial activity, Ruth has contributed to numerous international conferences and peer-reviewed as well as subject-specific publications, such as Art Journal, Visual Culture in Britain, Print Quarterly, IMPACT Conference Proceedings, IMPACT Print Journal, Art in Print and Printmaking Today. She also frequently contributes comphrehensive catalogue essays and gallery texts for artists and arts organisations.

Her academic writing and art criticism has explored a range of concepts and themes affiliated with contemporary cultural and aesthetic practices, especially in relation to prints/printmaking. These include:

• notions of ‘craft’, ‘technology’, ‘technique’;
• discursivity, citationality and performativity;
• haptics and surface;
• ‘screen’, ‘skin’ and the ‘imprint’;
• multi-and/or intermedial practices;
• the sonorous quality of visual art;
• the material aesthetic of paper;
• drawing and printmaking;
• translation and copy;
• printmaking and the problematics of vision in photography;
• changing notions of the frame in contemporary art and print
• 'motility' in/of print
• 'print thinking' and 'printerliness'
• collaboration in printmaking
• artists' book and print
• queer approaches to print
• colour in print
• the relevance of printmaking in a multi-disciplinary, or interdisciplinary art context
• the ‘post-productive’ aspect of arts-based research.

PHD students

Tess Barnard (completed 2018)

Julia Smith, History of Art (completed 2022)

Rachel Adams, School of Art (SGSAH - Scottish Graduate School Arts and Humanities Research Award) (completed 2023)

Matthew Attard, School of Design (completed 2024), Representative of the Republic of Malta at the 60th Biennale di Venezia, 2024

Current students

Leanne Gonczarow, School of Art (SGSAH - Scottish Graduate School Arts and Humanities Research Award)

Sandra de Rycker, School of Design (SGSAH - Scottish Graduate School Arts and Humanities Research Award) 

Elizabeth Tomos, School of Art (ECA PhD Award)

Miriam Hancill, School of Art (ECA PhD Award)

Rita Mahfouz, School of Art and History of Art (ECA PhD Award)

Ethan Zhao, School of Art