Jessica Clark is a proud palawa/pallawah woman and a curator of contemporary art living and working on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm (Melbourne). She currently holds the position of Yalingwa Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (2022-24) during which she has recently curated Between Waves (2023) – a major exhibition that highlights the significance and breadth of contemporary Aboriginal art practice in Southeast Australia.
Her background in art history and art education has informed the development of an independent curatorial practice that is guided by conversation and collaboration and grounded in an understanding of the interrelationship between life, materiality, and place. Recent independent and collaborative exhibition projects include: From the other side (2023-2024) and Between Waves (2023) - touring nationally 2024-2026 - at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, breathing space (2021) and one (&) another (2020) at Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Naarm, In and of this place (2021) at Benalla Art Gallery [Online], and Experimenta Life Forms: International Triennial of Media Art (2021-2023) national touring exhibition.
Clark is alumni of the International Curators Program: Asia Pacific Triennial x TarraWarra Biennial (2021-2023) and alumni of: PIAD First Nations Colloquium, South Africa (2019), Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Cultural Keepers Program (2017-2020), Wesfarmers Indigenous Arts Leadership Program (2018), Signature Works: Innovation Lab (2018), and the First Nations Curators Program for the Venice Biennale (2017).
Clark holds a PhD Fine Arts and Music, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne having undertaken curatorial practice-led research investigated how intercultural curatorial models reframe and redefine narratives, understandings, and experiences of Aboriginal art. She is also alumni of UNSW College of Fine Art, Australian Catholic University and RMIT University, having completed a Bachelor in Art Theory, postgraduate studies in Art Education, and a Master of Arts Management respectively.
Dr. Jessica Clark. Photograph: Keelan O’Hehir