Martin Newth (b. Manchester, UK. 1973) is an artist, Head of the School of Fine Art, and Professor of Art and Education at The Glasgow School of Art. He studied at Newcastle University and the Slade School of Art, London.

Working primarily with photography, and also through film, writing and installation, Martin’s practice explores the processes and apparatus of image-making. His work foregrounds the material, technical and cultural conditions through which images are produced, circulated and encountered, often attending to the ways landscapes, architectures and systems of power are rendered visible – and invisible – through photographic technologies.

Recent work explores how photographic images are encountered, trusted and made meaningful when their referents are no longer grounded in physical places but in computationally generated worlds. Bringing together AI-generated environments, gaming engines and large-format analogue photography, this practice stages an encounter between virtual image worlds and slow, material photographic processes. By reworking digital imagery through optical capture and low-impact, home-made chemical development, the work complicates distinctions between the virtual and the material, the generated and the made, and holds open questions of authorship, authenticity and trust in contemporary image culture.

Martin has exhibited widely, with solo exhibitions including Rezension – Skulptur, Objekt, Apparat at MEWO Kunsthalle, Germany, and Re-view at Photofusion, London. His work has also been presented at institutions including the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Xiamen Art Museum, China; Kronika Centre for Contemporary Art, Bytom; Loft 8 Gallery, Vienna; and the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei.

Martin has held academic leadership roles at University of the Arts London, where he was Programme Director of Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts for ten years, and at the Royal College of Art, where he served as Associate Dean (Education) in the School of Arts and Humanities. He is passionate about developing experimental, inclusive and critically engaged approaches to art education, and has led initiatives that rethink curricula, studio cultures and research-led teaching within specialist art schools.

With Pawel Mendrek, Martin co-founded the cross-European network .PNG, which examines how social, political and global conditions shape how art is made and taught today. Through publications, symposia, exhibitions and workshops, .PNG provides a platform for exploring contemporary artistic and pedagogical urgencies across international contexts.