Biography

Artist, curator and writer Brook Andrew’s practice is grounded in his perspective as a Wiradjuri and Celtic person with matrilineal kinship from the Kalar Midday (land of the three rivers) of the Wiradjuri people in Australia. His artworks, research, leadership roles and curatorial projects challenge the limitations imposed by power structures, historical amnesia and complicity to centre and support indigenous ways of being through systemic change and yindyamarra (respect, honour, go slow and responsibility in Wiradjuri).

He is the founder of BLAK C.O.R.E. and Director, Reimagining Museums and Collections, The University of Melbourne.

His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at several institutions, including Murray Art Museum Albury, Australia (2021); Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2018); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2017); National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2017); and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, UK (2016). He has also participated in several group exhibitions, including À toi appartient le regard, Musée du Quai Branly, Jacques Chirac, Paris (2020); Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kerala. India (2018–2019); TO MAKE WRONG / RIGHT / NOW, Honolulu Biennale (2019); and SUPERPOSITION: Art of Equilibrium and Engagement, 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018).

His works can be found in the collections of Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Kadist, Paris; Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai; Musée du Quai Branly, Jacques Chirac, Paris; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (South Korea); and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, among others.

He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including Arts Project grant, Australia Council for the Arts, Sydney (2021); Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative grant (2020–2023); Visual Artist of the Year, Australia Council for the Arts, Sydney (2020); and Australian Research Council Indigenous Discovery Programme grant (2016–2018).

He earned a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the University of Western Sydney (1993) and a Master of Fine Arts (Research) from the University of N.S.W. Sydney (1997). He also holds a DPhil in Fine Art from the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University.

Born in 1970 in Sydney, he lives and works between Melbourne, Oxford and Paris.


SAF participation: March Meeting 2022

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