Jonathan Kimberley is an Artist, Curator & Writer specializing in developing decolonial, transcultural & collaborative contemporary art projects.
Over the past 30 years he has mobilized a unique transdisciplinary career in the contemporary art sector, combining local and international curatorial projects, contemporary art practice, critical art writing and major public art and cultural programs, including significant projects with both emerging and leading Australian and International artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. Kimberley’s contemporary praxis is a convergence of artistic, curatorial and nomadic transcultural inquiry, dissolving disciplinary boundaries between complex collaborative and durational artistic and curatorial projects. His work as an artist has been shown in more than 60 exhibitions and is held in numerous public and private collections in Australia, USA, Italy, China.
Jonathan is an eighth-generation Australian, whose ancestral origins are in the UK & Central Europe. He is descended from a First Fleet convict from the UK, who arrived in Sydney in 1788 and relocated to Tasmania in 1808.
Education: Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) RMIT University, Melbourne (1990); Master of Fine Arts (Research), University of Western Australia (2010) (thesis ranked in top 5% of international MFA’s); PhD (Research) candidate at Australian National University & Kingston School of Art, London (2019-present).
Selected major curatorial projects: Founding Manager, Warmun Art Centre (Turkey Creek, WA) (1998-2001); Kuluntjarra World Map (The Nine Collaborations) (2008-2010); Senior Curator & Manager, Warmun Art Centre (2012-13); Curator, Mildura Palimpsest Biennale #10 2015 (2014-2015); Artistic Director / CEO, GASP (Glenorchy Art & Sculpture Park) (2016-2018); and an ongoing collaboration (since 2004) with puralia meenamatta Jim Everett (plangermairreenner / pakana) in lutruwita (Tasmania).
As Founding Curator & Manager of Warmun Art Centre (Turkey Creek, Western Australia) (1998 –2001), under the guidance of Gija artists and elders, he facilitated the establishment of one of the leading community cultural institutions in Australia. The opportunity also provided exceptional grounding and insight into the dynamic and emerging world of First Nations and transcultural art practice in Australia and internationally.
In 2004, Jonathan and puralia meenamatta Jim Everett (plangermairreenner / pakana) met in meenamatta country lutruwita (Tasmania), commencing an ongoing collaboration with many iterations, including durational transdisciplinary projects: meenamatta lena narla puellakanny (meenamatta water country discussion) in Tasmania and Italy (since 2004); The Global Dome Unlimited (since 2011); A Praxis of Treaty with International Country (since 2019).
Country Unwrapping Landscape : Kuluntjarra World Map (The Nine Collaborations) (2008-2010) is an art practice-as-research MFA project, combined with a written thesis critiquing intercultural collaborative art practice between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists in Australia to 2010. The overall praxis is grounded in a durational collaborative painting project developed over two years with seven Ngaanyatjarra / Pintupi artists from Patjarr in the Gibson Desert, Western Australia – resulting a series of 9 collaborative paintings Kuluntjarra World Map (The Nine Collaborations). For Kimberley, the work is in-part also a critical response to Imants Tillers’ Nine Shots (1986) and Gordon Bennett’s Nine Richochets (1990).
In 2012 – 2013, Kimberley returned to Warmun Art Centre as Senior Curator & Manager, where in partnership with Gija people he guided the recovery and rebuilding of the art centre program following devastating 2011 floods. He was a member of the curatorial / project team for Lena Nyadbi, Dayiwul Lirlmim (Barramundi Scales) Musee du quai Branly in Paris 2012-2013; established the Gija Two-Way Learning Program, a ground-breaking intercultural tertiary education partnership between Warmun Art Centre & The University of Melbourne’s Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation; established a new Media Lab @ WAC e-media project; and established a Living Cultural Archive of the nationally significant Warmun Community Collection in partnership with Melbourne University.
He was Curator of Mildura Palimpsest Biennale #10 2015 (2014-2015) (formerly the Mildura Sculpture Triennial est. 1961), a 100% inland residency-based, durational, international contemporary art biennale, developing and presenting new site-specific works by 80 First Nations, International and Australian artists, in Australia, Japan and Italy. As Artistic Director / CEO of GASP (Glenorchy Art & Sculpture Park) (2016-2018) he curated seven major collaborative, transcultural, ephemeral and permanent public art & sculpture projects on the riverfront in the north of nipaluna (Hobart), lutruwita (Tasmania).
Kimberley has also curated & developed numerous intercultural projects across Australia and internationally, working with organisations including, Warlayirti Artists, Martumili Artists, Kayili Artists, Warakurna Artists (W.A), Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre (N.T.), Centro Camuno Studi di Preistorici (Valcamonica, Italy), Australian Embassy, Paris. He has also published numerous art theory essays.
Currently he is developing an international art-practice-as-research PhD at the Australian National University, Canberra & Kingston School of Art, London.
He currently lives and works between: pakana / palawa country, lutruwita (Tasmania); Ngunnawal / Ngambri country, Kamberri (Canberra, ACT), Australia; and ancestral country in the UK.
For a full CV please contact by email