Mark Feary Named Curator of 2028 ADELAIDE BIENNIAL of Australian Art
Gertrude Contemporary's artistic director was chosen by a panel including Hetti Perkins and Jason Smith.
The Art Gallery of South Australia has announced Mark Feary as curator of the 2028 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. Aotearoa New Zealand-born curator Feary brings more than twenty years of curatorial experience across contemporary art centres, universities, museums and artist-led initiatives, including his current position as Artistic Director of Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, and former roles at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; Artspace, Sydney; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo; Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne; and West Space, Melbourne.
Jason Smith, Director, Art Gallery of South Australia, said, 'The Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art has been at the forefront of contemporary Australian art for 36 years, as the longest running survey of its kind. It has continuously built audiences, fostered critical engagement nationally and internationally, and elevated the work and reputations of contemporary Australian artists. We are delighted to welcome Mark Feary as curator of the 2028 Adelaide Biennial, whose extensive experience and thoughtful curatorial approach will undoubtedly shape an ambitious and compelling exhibition.'
The judging panel was unanimous in selecting Feary from a competitive range of applications from across Australia. The 2028 Adelaide Biennial selection panel comprised Hetti Perkins, Head Curator, Desert Mob; Matthew Lutton OAM, Artistic Director, Adelaide Festival; Daniela Valmorbida, Chair, Biennial Ambassadors Committee; Leigh Robb, Curator, Contemporary Art, AGSA; and Jason Smith, Director, AGSA.
Mark Feary commented, 'I am honoured to have been invited to develop the 2028 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and would like to sincerely thank Jason Smith and all of the members of the selection committee for their support and vision. The Adelaide Biennial has been a series of defining cornerstones for me as a curator, since first visiting Charlotte Day and Sarah Tutton's Before and After Science in 2010, with each edition defining a particular moment in and view of Australian culture, and each etched into the nation's art history. My research trajectory for the 2028 edition will be focussed upon capturing a particular mood, acknowledging problematic histories, and an increasingly uncertain and turbulent present, but motivated by the persistence of optimism.'
Feary's appointment comes following the June closure of the 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Yield Strength, curated by Ellie Buttrose. Yield Strength assembled twenty-four leading Australian artists with works that revealed how materials, selfhood and society are tested, and transformed, under pressure.
The Adelaide Biennial supports contemporary artists and the strategic development of the AGSA collection. From the 2026 edition thirteen works of art have been acquired for the AGSA collection including Matthew Teapot Djipurrtjun's Wodhalyu dhäwu (The Story of Wodhal), two sculptural works by d harding, four works by Milminyina Dhamarrandji, Josina Pumani's Black Mist, Julie Nangala Robertson's Mina Mina Jukurrpa, Mark Maurangi Carrol's Titikaveka (Aka va'a) (to cause openings to cut or make gaps in space) and three works from Nathan Beard's Untitled (Ciceroni) series.
Established in 1990 as the leading visual arts offering of the Adelaide Festival, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art has created career-defining opportunities for almost 500 artists and has been experienced by more than 2 million visitors.
The 2028 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art will be presented from 3 March to 4 June 2028 as part of the 2028 Adelaide Festival.
ABOUT THE ADELAIDE BIENNIAL OF AUSTRALIAN ART
Known for its risk taking and expansive vision, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art has demonstrated a significant and sustained practice for more than three decades. Inaugurated in 1990, it is the country's longest running survey of contemporary Australian art and an important platform for Australian artists to realise new works and projects of a scale that require an institutional context for their conception and presentation. The Adelaide Biennial has had a lasting impact on Australian art, on the careers of artists, curators and arts professionals, and on the state of South Australia as a wellspring for contemporary art. The nationwide Biennial Ambassadors Program plays an essential role in supporting the Adelaide Biennial's artistic ambition and championing the practice of Australian artists.
ABOUT MARK FEARY
Mark Feary is an Aotearoa New Zealand-born contemporary art curator based in Naarm Melbourne. He has served as Artistic Director at Gertrude Contemporary since 2016. In this role he has led the organisation's artistic program across the sites of Gertrude Contemporary and Gertrude Glasshouse as well as Gertrude's two-year studio program. He has had oversight of over 150 solo and group exhibitions during his tenure, led the organisation's forty year artistic program, Past is Prologue: Four Decades of Gertrude (2025), and developed numerous curatorial projects including Polyphonic Reverb (2023); Being, Human Being: UFO Photography (2023); Hope Dies Last: Art at the End of Optimism (2019), presented at Gertrude Contemporary and at the Victorian College of the Arts as part of Melbourne International Arts Festival; Zzzzz: Sleep, Somnambulism, Madness (2018), presented at Gertrude Contemporary and the Murray Art Museum Albury; The End of Time. The Beginning of Time (2017); and Octopus 16: Antiques Roadshow (2016) among other projects.
Feary has undertaken international curatorial residencies and programs including the inaugural Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course in South Korea; the Focus program for international curatorial professionals organised by Institut français; a curatorial residency at BankART in Yokohama; an Asialink curatorial residency at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; as well as earlier residencies with the Goethe Institut in Berlin and PS1 Art Center in New York City. In 2011 he was selected through an international open call process by apexart in New York City to present the project A Postcard from Afar: North Korea from a Distance in 2012. Many of Feary's international curatorial projects have sought to contextualise the practices of Australasian artists, including Landscape Painting: Recent Video from Australia & New Zealand, One & J Gallery, Seoul in 2013; Video Arte Australia y Nueva Zelanda, Centro Cultural Matucana 100, Santiago in 2013; and South by Southeast: Australasian Video Art, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2011.
Prior curatorial roles have been at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; Artspace, Sydney; Buxton International / Michael Buxton Collection, Naarm, Melbourne; Centre for Contemporary Photography, Naarm Melbourne; and West Space, Naarm Melbourne. He is a graduate of the Art Curatorship and Museum Management program at the University of Melbourne and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand.
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