Te Uru and UNSW Galleries are delighted to announce the curators participating in our 2025 Visiting Curators Programme (VCP).

Ellie Buttrose

Zoe Black

Bruce Johnson McLean

Felicity Milburn

Established in 2024, the VCP is an exchange programme designed to foster deeper engagement between practitioners and institutions in Aotearoa and Australia. Curators from both countries will be hosted internationally to conduct research, meet with artists, and present on their respective practices to date. The VCP is intended to facilitate ongoing connections between Australia and Aotearoa that build greater opportunities and resonance for art communities within the region. 

We look forward to welcoming Ellie, Zoe, Bruce, and Felicity in our respective cities.

The Visiting Curators Programme is made possible through partnership with hosting institutions University of New South Wales Galleries and AUT and the School of Future Environments, and is supported by the Te Uru Benefactors Collective (TBC).

 

Ellie Buttrose
5–11 JUNE TĀMAKI MAKAURAU
TALK: TUES 10 JUNE 6PM AUT
Ellie Buttrose, portrait. Photograph by Joe Ruckli. Image courtesy of QAGOMA.

Ellie Buttrose is the Curator of Contemporary Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA); Curator of the 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia; and Curator of ‘Archie Moore: kith and kin’ at the Australia Pavilion, 2024 Venice Biennale, which received the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Her recent curatorial projects at QAGOMA include: Living Patterns 2023 that featured artists who use abstraction as both a political and formal device; Embodied Knowledge 2022 a survey of contemporary Queensland art co-curated with Katina Davidson; Work, Work, Work 2019 that examined the intersection of civic and artistic labour; and Limitless Horizon: Vertical Perspective 2017, which reconsidered the impact of drone vision on contemporary art through First Nations and East Asian painting traditions.

Zoe Black
8–12 SEPT SYDNEY
Zoe Black, portrait. Photography by Seb Charles, courtesy of Objectspace.

Zoe Black (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Pākehā) is the deputy director of Objectspace, a public gallery dedicated to craft, design and architecture in Aotearoa New Zealand. She works across curatorial programming, community and international development, and programme delivery. Black’s curatorial practice centres community development and advocating for critically under-represented making and object art forms. She was Norwegian Crafts’ curator in residence (2020– 2022), working on projects that create a dialogue between Indigenous making practices in Aotearoa and Sápmi, is part of The Indigenous Curatorial Collective (ICCA), works with the advocacy group Art Makers Aotearoa, and contributes governance, advisory and writing to arts and cultural initiatives.

 

Bruce Johnson McLean
6–10 OCT TĀMAKI MAKAURAU
TALK DATE: TUES 9 OCT 6PM
Bruce Johnson McLean, portrait. Photograph by Daniel Boud. Image courtesy of Biennale of Sydney.

Bruce Johnson McLean is a member of the Wierdi people of Wribpid (Belyando River region in Central Queensland). Bruce has been involved in First Nations art and culture his entire life and has over 25 years’ professional experience in the sector, primarily as a writer, curator, advisor, and consultant. Bruce was previously Assistant Director, First Nations at the National Gallery of Australia, managing their First Nations programs and initiatives. Prior to that, Bruce was Curator, Indigenous Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, for more than 16 years. Bruce has curated many exhibitions and programs including Tony Albert: Visible 2018, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori: Dulka Warngiid Land of All 2016, and My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia 2013. He has co-curated: Mavis Ngallametta: Show Me the Way to go Home 2020, Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey: Stories of this Land 2019 and GOMA Q: Contemporary Queensland Art 2015. Bruce was also a curator of the international collaborative exhibition Histórias Indígenas (Indigenous Histories) 2023 at MASP, Sao Paulo, Brazil and KODE, Bergen, Norway. He has also worked on several major projects including large-scale illumination projects with Vincent Namatjira and the Mulka Project for Canberra’s Enlighten Festival.

Felicity Milburn
13–17 OCT SYDNEY
Felicity Milburn, portrait. Photography by John Collie, courtesy Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.

Felicity Milburn is Lead Curator at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, where she works collaboratively with artists on a wide range of projects, from temporary installations to large-scale survey exhibitions. Her latest project, Dummies & Doppelgängers, explores her long-held interest in what art can tell us about human nature. Previous exhibitions have included Absence, 2023, Grant Lingard: Needs and Desires, 2022, Cheryl Lucas: Shaped by Schist and Scoria, 2022, Francis Upritchard: Paper, Creature, Stone, 2019, the major touring survey Louise Henderson: From Life (co-curated with Lara Strongman and Julia Waite), 2019, Juliet Peter: Where the Line Leads, 2018, Jacqueline Fahey: Say Something!, 2017 and Séraphine Pick: Tell me More, 2009. Felicity writes regularly about art for the Gallery and externally. Selected publications include Dummies & Doppelgängers (2024), Cheryl Lucas: Shaped by Schist and Scoria (2022), Louise Henderson: From Life (2019), Jacqueline Fahey: Say Something! (2017) and Séraphine Pick (2009).