Brook Andrew (b.1970, Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal/Australia) exhibits in Australia and internationally, with research-based museum interventions and Wiradjuri language being central to his practice. His works reflect on colliding histories and draw us into an environment of entangled entrancement, often drawing from public and private collections to upend prevailing colonial narratives. Andrew recontextualises vernacular objects and archival photographs to honour Indigenous identity and collective memory, illuminating new ways of engaging with the past to transform the present and expose alternative futures. His constantly shifting, interdisciplinary practice challenges stereotypical notions of history, identity and race.
Read MoreIn 2017, Andrew's artistic career was recognised with a large-scale, immersive solo exhibition, Brook Andrew: The Right to Offend is Sacred, at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. In 2022, Andrew debuted his multi-channel video, live performances and installation GABAN (2022) in YOYI! Care, Repair, Heal, Gropius Bau, Berlin. GABAN was also presented as a live performance over the opening weekend of the Art Gallery of NSW's new building in 2023. His works have been presented in significant institutions across the world, including Musée du Quai Branly, Paris (2020); 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018); National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2017); Yinchuan Biennale, Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China (2016); Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge (2016); 8th Asia-Pacific Triennal (APT8), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2015); Museum de Lakhenhal, Leiden, the Netherlands (2015); National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2015); Tate Britain, London (2015); National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2015); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid (2014); Künstlerhaus, Vienna (2013); National Museum of China, Beijing (2013); Jumping Castle War Memorial at the FeliXartMuseum, Dragenbos, Belgium (2013); representing Australia in the Echigo-Tsumari Triennial, Japan (2012); MOCA, Seoul (2011); 17th Biennale of Sydney (2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia (2012); Spertus Institute, Chicago (2008); Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of Art History, Washington D.C (2007); Fondation Ishibashi, Tokyo (2007); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago (2007).
Andrew was the artistic director of the First Nations and artist-led NIRIN: the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020). Following this work, he was an international advisor for the Sámi Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), and a co-curator of _YOYI Care, Repair, Heal _at the Gropius Bau (2022) along with Kader Attia, Giscard Bouchotte, Natasha Ginwala, Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, under the curatorial lead of Stephanie Rosenthal in collaboration with SERAFINE1369. Other ground-breaking artist-led curatorial projects include TABOO (2012-2013), an exhibition and program of talks, performances and films screenings at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia that brought together Australian and international speakers to respond to ideas around race, ethnicity, politics and religion.
Recently, Andrew established the publishing arm Garru Editions in 2020. Publications include galang 01 and galang 02 (2022), volumes by the Powerhouse-galang, an Indigenous-led think tank, collective and sovereign space initiated by Andrew in his role as Artistic Associate of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. As a leading thinker, practitioner and researcher in his field, Andrew is Enterprise Professor in Interdisciplinary Practice and Director of Reimagining Museums and Collections at the University of Melbourne and Adjunct in the Wominjeka Djeembana research lab, Monash University. He holds a DPhil from the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
Through his artistic lens, Andrew is Adjunct Curator ngurambang-ayinya (First Nations), Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (2023-ongoing). In his role as Director of Reimagining Museums and Collections at the University of Melbourne (2022–ongoing), he founded BLAK C.O.R.E, a collective driven by First Nations methodologies, research and cultural practices focusing on walumarra (protection), yindyamarra gunhanha (ongoing respect) and murungidyal (healing in the museum). With Professor Brian Martin, Andrew also led the Australian Research Council project More than a guulany (tree): Aboriginal Knowledge Systems (2021–23), hosted by Monash University. In 2019, Andrew concluded a 4-year Australian Research Council grant, Representation, Remembrance and the Memorial at Monash University, Melbourne, responding to repeated calls for a national memorial to Aboriginal loss and the Frontier Wars. In 2016, Andrew was awarded the prestigious les Résidences Photographiques of le Musée du Quai Branly. In 2017, he undertook the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
Andrew is also represented by Galerie Nathalie Obadia (France and Belgium), Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery (Sydney, Australia) and Tolarno Galleries (Melbourne, Australia).
Text courtesy Ames Yavuz.