In this intimate conversation, award-winning artist Tony Albert shares his insights on art, curating and all that lies between with Professor Lisa Slade, the Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australian Art History at the University of Melbourne.
This year is looking to be a big year for the artist. He is the Artistic Director of the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain at the National Gallery of Australia (closing 27 April) and has a solo exhibition of his work, Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir, opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art on 21 May.
Before hearing from the artist, view his series of etchings collectively titled Ash on Me, 2025, currently on display in Wurrdha Marra at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia.
The Wurrdha Marra exhibition will be open for viewing from 5.15pm, ahead of the talk commencing at 6pm.
Tony Albert is one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists with a longstanding interest in the cultural misrepresentation of Aboriginal people. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, his multidisciplinary practice considers the ways in which optimism might be utilised to overcome adversity. Albert is acknowledged industry wide as a valued ambassador for Indigenous community and culture. He was recently announced as the inaugural Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain First Nations Curatorial Fellow. He is the first Indigenous Trustee for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a member of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Indigenous advisory, a board member for the City of Sydney’s Public Art Panel and member of the Art & Place Board at the Queensland Children’s Hospital and in January 2023 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Griffith University for his significant contribution to the arts.
Professor Lisa Slade is the Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australian Art History in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. As both a curator and art historian, Lisa has played an active role and has a critical interest in how exhibition making and collection development makes Australia’s art histories. Between 2015 and 2024 she was Assistant Director, Artistic Programs at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) where Lisa led the gallery’s creative output including exhibitions, collection displays, public and educational programs. Together with the AGSA team, she implemented the curatorial signature at AGSA that brings discrete and pervading art histories into dialogue with contemporary art and ideas, including the vital leadership of First Nations’ voices.