Professor Natalie King OAM is an Australian arts leader, cultural producer and curator with more than two decades of experience in international and Australian contemporary art and visual culture.
Natalie is in full swing right now curating at the 2022 Venice Biennale featuring an extraordinary artist who she has worked tirelessly with to showcase to the world Yuki Kihara.
Small island ecologies, climate change, queer rights, Gauguin’s gaze, intersectionality and decolonization; these are just some of the topics explored by award-winning interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara.
Eight years in the making, Paradise Camp is Yuki Kihara’s politically urgent and creatively astute project curated by Natalie King. Kihara works across photography, video, archival research and socially engaged methods to present Paradise Camp for the New Zealand pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (Biennale Arte 2022).
Natalie has a unique cultural footprint and networks in contemporary art, realising landmark programs across Australia, Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Working across multiple domains, her highly skilled leadership spans the lifecycle of artistic production and management from new commissions, exhibitions, artistic partnerships, stakeholder relations, fundraising and programming.
In 2018, she was nominated for AFR 100 Women of Influence.
A huge career highlight was as a Curator of Tracey Moffatt: My Horizon, 57th Venice Biennale, 2017; the first solo exhibition by an Indigenous artist in the Australian Pavilion at Venice Biennale with record attendance, 338,000+ visitors and unprecedented media coverage including Tate, MoMA, Serpentine, Guggenheim Museum, and the Minister of Arts, Singapore, Prime Minister of Ireland and Governor General of New Zealand visiting.
For over 120 years, the Venice Biennale has been the most prestigious cultural event in the world with more than 80 participating countries.
Working closely with Commissioner (businesswoman and philanthropist), Naomi Milgrom AO on all fundraising to achieve unprecedented financial support Natalie became
Commissioning editor of the first book in 10 years on renowned Aboriginal artist Tracey Moffatt: My Horizon, Thames & Hudson, 2017 achieving significant northern hemisphere distribution at TATE, MoMA bookstores with contributions from Professor Camille Paglia (University of Pennsylvania); Germano Celant (Prada Foundation); Djon Mundine OAM (Bundjulung activist, writer, curator); Alexis Wright (Waanyi author and winner of Miles Franklin Award 2007)
She was also Chief Curator of the inaugural Melbourne Biennial Lab: What happens now? With City of Melbourne and Melbourne Festival, 2016 at Queen Victoria Market comprising 8 temporary commissions.
Natalie’s contribution to the Global arts community is a tribute to her tenacity, passion and sense of community and her deep love of the artist and the role they play on telling our stories.
Deborah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/what.ive.learnt/
Mind, Film and Publishing: https://www.mindfilmandpublishing.com/
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/what-ive-learnt/id153556330
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3TQjCspxcrSi4yw2YugxBk
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1365850