Damian Skinner is an independent art historian and curator. His recent books include the co-authored Cone
Ten Down: Studio Pottery in New Zealand, 1945–1980 (Bateman, 2009), which was a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2010, and The Passing World, The Passage of Life: John Hovell and the Art of
Kowhaiwhai (Rim Books, 2010, a New Zealand Post Book Award winner). He has written widely on aspects of New Zealand art history, including modernism, Maori art, and craft.