Te Uru and UNSW Galleries are delighted to announce the participants in the 2026 Visiting Curators Programme. This initiative fosters a meaningful exchange of ideas between Aotearoa and Australia, bringing together a dynamic group of curators at the forefront of contemporary curatorial research.

As part of the programme, Chloe Cull and DJCS (Aotearoa), alongside Tim Riley Walsh and Mikala Tai (Australia), will travel to share their research, engage with local communities, and foster lasting connections.

Further details, including dates and opportunities to engage with the visiting curators, will be announced soon.

Chloe Cull

Chloe Cull (Kāi Tahu, Aerani, Ingarani) is pouarataki curator Māori at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. She develops exhibitions that explore and uplift Indigenous knowledge and storytelling. Chloe’s recent exhibition projects include Whāia te Taniwha (co-curated with Madi Williams and Kirsty Dunn, 2025); John Vea: Ini Mini Mani Mou (2025); Edith Amituanai and Sione Tuívailala Monū: Toloa Tales (co-curated with Melanie Oliver, 2024); and Te Rā: The Māori Sail. Chloe recently co-edited two Christchurch Art Gallery publications – Whāia te Taniwha: Stories from Te Waipounamu and Whenua (both 2025) – and has contributed texts to several publications including Tracy Keith: Remember Industry (Hastings Art Gallery, 2025) and Sightlines (Auckland University Press, 2024).

DJCS

DJCS is a curator based in Te Whanganui a Tara, and the founder of COMMODE, a gallery dedicated to experimental and discursive practice. His work engages queer theory and institutional critique, treating exhibition making as a mode of inquiry that foregrounds complexity, political consciousness, and the slow work of building alternative infrastructures. He was Director of Enjoy Contemporary Art Space (2022–2025); Assistant Curator, Artspace Aotearoa (2021–2022); Founder and Director, Parasite (2020–2022); Co-Director, RM Gallery and Projectspace (2016–2018); and has worked within and alongside public, commercial, and artist-run galleries in Aotearoa since 2012.

 

Tim Riley Walsh

Visiting Tāmaki Makaurau 28 April - 3 May 2026
Tim Riley Walsh is Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Gadigal Country, Sydney. His recent MCA curatorial projects include Data Dreams:Art and AI (2025, co-curator), Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists (2025, curator) and MCA Collection: Artists in Focus (2025, curatorium). Previously, Tim was Curator in Residence at Gertrude and MADA Gallery, Monash University, both in Naarm/Melbourne. He has also worked at Camden Art Centre, London and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Magandjin/Brisbane. His recent, independent curatorial projects include Unbecoming, La Trobe Art Institute, Djaara/Bendigo (2025), You Are Here Too, Institute of Modern Art, Magandjin/Brisbane (2025, co-curator), and One Vast Library, MADA Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne (2024). In 2020, he edited the award-winning publication Gordon Bennett: Selected Writings. Tim is also a founding member of Kink, a collective writing a history of queer Australian art at queeraustralianart.com.

Photographer Hamish McIntosh

Mikala Tai 

Visiting Tāmaki Makaurau 26 - 31 August 2026

Mikala Tai is an independent writer, curator and cultural strategist based in Sydney, frequently bouncing between her hometowns of Melbourne and Hong Kong.

A specialist in contemporary Australian and Asian art, she has collaborated with local, national, and international organisations to strengthen cultural connections between Australia and Asia.

Starting her career at the National Gallery of Victoria, Mikala has most recently served as Head of Visual Arts at Creative Australia, where she was Project Director for Archie Moore’s Gold Lion–winning kith and kin. Prior to that, she was Director of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney.

In 2015, she received her PhD, examining the influence of the global city on China’s local art infrastructure, and continues to maintain an active role in academia. Recent work can be found in writing for Art Review, Artist Profile, and Art and Australia; and as exhibition projects across Australia.

Photographer Joshua Strong