Curator · Art historian · Writer · Gallery director
One curator, at home in Beijing, Havana, Lhasa, Oaxaca, the Pilbara, Wales, Taipei
From the Black Mountains of Wales to a studio in Beijing, a biennial in Havana to a residency in the Pilbara – Damian Smith is the figure art institutions call when a project crosses borders, languages and centuries. Thirty years of writing and curating, kept whole and made navigable.
Four reasons institutions call
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1994 – present The Sidney Nolan authority Inaugural archivist for Nolan's estate in Wales; now consulted from museum surveys to the saleroom. Auction essay, Early Morning Township – sold $2.7M -
2018 – 2022 The Geoff Raby Collection of Contemporary Chinese Art Editor of the bilingual monograph across three editions, ending at La Trobe University Press / Black Inc. The largest cultural gift in La Trobe's history - 2019 Australian Pavilion, 13th Bienal de la Habana Curated ten Australian artists into The Construction of the Possible, Casa de Asia, Old Havana. Australia within the Global South
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2016 – present The Damian Smith Archive, State Library of Victoria A library-held record of one freelance curator's practice – mapping contemporary Australian art. 207+ artists · 74 catalogues · 57 exhibitions
The Atlas
Home base
Melbourne
37.8°S · 145.0°E – home base
The studio. Director of the Australasian Cultural Arts Exchange (ACAE Gallery), Fellow at the Centre of Visual Art, University of Melbourne, and decades of projects with Heide, the NGV, the MCA, La Trobe, RMIT and the State Library of Victoria.
State Library of Victoria · National Gallery of Victoria · Blindside ARI
Read the projectConsultancy services
- Art writing Monographs, exhibition catalogues, essays and criticism, commissioned by institutions and publishers.
- Curatorial Biennales, survey exhibitions, group and solo shows, from large-scale installations to salon hangs.
- Collection & museum management Collection strategy, programming, and moving private collections into public institutions.
- Cultural gifts Guidance on donating artworks to Australian public collections under the Cultural Gifts Program.
- Risk & governance Working where expression is regulated, and the board-level experience behind it.
- Education & speaking Lecturing, conference papers and public speaking on contemporary art and curatorial practice.
The Damian Smith Archive
Held at the State Library of Victoria since 2016.
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2020s
- 2026 Richard Henderson: Identities, Designs, Icons 1976 – 2026 ACAE Gallery, Melbourne, 7 – 28 November 2026 · Curator
- 2026 Between Two Traditions: The Art of Khue Nguyễn in Gánh Màu Cho Quê Hương, a six-artist collective of two generations of the Nguyen family of artists, Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts, Vietnam, forthcoming · Essay
- 2026 Colours Across the Homeland: The Art of Nguyễn Thị Tâm in Gánh Màu Cho Quê Hương, a six-artist collective of two generations of the Nguyen family of artists, Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts, Vietnam, forthcoming · Essay
- 2026 Dale Hickey 1989, 1990 Helgoland by Deven Marriner, Collingwood, 25 July – 5 September 2026 · Essay
- 2026 European Masters: Original Autographs and Letters ACAE Gallery, Melbourne, 28 March – 30 April 2026, featuring original manuscripts and letters by Claude Monet, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Auguste Rodin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens, Frederic Leighton, Arthur Conan Doyle, W. Somerset Maugham, Napoleon Bonaparte and Queen Victoria · Curator, with Quinn Qiu
- 2026 Judy Kong: After Epilogue Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, 2026 · Essay
- 2025 Tony Smibert: Where Islands Meet Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library and Archives of Tasmania, Nipaluna/Hobart, 21 March – 14 June 2025, curated by Caitlin Sutton · Essay
- 2025 Gary Willis: Alchemy Helgoland by Deven Marriner, Collingwood, 28 November – 13 December 2025 · Curator
- 2025 Sidney Nolan’s Irishness Fintan Cullen, Fiona Barber (eds.) Routledge Companion to Irish Art (New York: Routledge), 2025
- 2025 Gary Willis: Post-Conceptual Painter Words For Art · Smith with Zimmer, J Willis, G
- 2025 Passage and Echo: Sidney Nolan x Guan Wei Vermilion Gallery, Sydney, 10 July – 16 August 2025 · Curator
- 2024 Crystal Wu: Symphony of Colours ACAE Gallery, Melbourne, 30 November – 21 December 2024 · Curator
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