Zena Cumpston
Zena Cumpston is a Barkandji woman with Afghan, Irish and English heritage. Zena works as an artist, writer, researcher, curator and consultant. She is a member of the Birrarung Council in Narrm and has worked extensively as a freelance writer. Zena began making visual art in late 2022, forging an exciting new pathway to telegraph and extend her research and writing practice.
In 2024, her artworks will be seen as part of the NETS national tour of ngaratya (together, us group, all in it together); The Soils Project at Van Abbemuseum, Netherlands; Lightscape (Royal Botanic Gardens Narrm); DISH (major exhibition, Town Hall Gallery, Narrm) and as part of bíal gwiyúŋo (the fire is not yet lit) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In September 2024 she will present her first solo show Return, focussing on plants of place of the municipality of Darebin (Narrm) as part of Darebin FUSE Festival.
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EDUCATION
2014 Bachelor of Arts, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria
1995 Certificate in Acting Methodology, Centre for Performing Arts, Adelaide, South Australia
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024 defi-Nations, Adelaide Festival Centre, SA
2024 Return, solo exhibition (incorporating many Aboriginal guest events) Darebin FUSE Festival, VIC
2024 Lightscapes, Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria
2024 Soils, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2024 ngaratya (together, us group, all in it together) Broken Hill City Gallery, NSW (artist/curator)
2024 DISH, Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn, VIC
2024 Under/Visible, Slag Heap Productions Gallery, Broken Hill, NSW
2024 bial gwiyuno (the fire is not yet lit) Art Gallery of NSW (artist/education program)
2024 Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize exhibition, Sydney, NSW
2023 ngaratya (together, us group, all in it together) Bunjil Place Gallery, VIC (artist/curator)
2023 Escarpment Project, InPlace, Eltham, VIC (ongoing/multi-year)
2023 WAMA Art Prize Exhibition, Ararat Regional Gallery, VIC
2023 The Blak Laundry, Horizon Festival, Sunshine Coast, QLD
2023 The Soils Project, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, VIC
2023 Slag Heap Productions Gallery inaugural group show/fundraiser, Broken Hill, NSW
2022 Emu Sky, Ian Potter/Old Quad, University of Melbourne, VIC (artist/curator)
2022 Assembly for the Future, ANAT Spectra
2021 RE/SET First Site Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne, VIC
2020 Assembly for the Future/ The Things We Did Next, Bleed Festival, online
2019 The Living Pavilion, University of Melbourne, Parkville (artist/curator)
2019 Bunha-bunhanga, Aboriginal Agriculture in the South-East, Tarnanthi Festival, AGSA
RESIDENCIES
2024 Curatorial printmaking workshop, Kluge Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum, Virginia, USA
2024 Bundanon Artist Residency, Bundanon, NSW
2023 InPlace Artist Residency, Eltham, VIC
SELECTED AWARDS
2024 Finalist, Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize
2023 Recipient, Creators Fund, Creative Victoria
2023 Recipient, Award of Excellence, WAMA Art Prize,
2023 Recipient, Art Monthly Indigenous Voices Program (mentor)
2023 Appointed to The Birrarung Council (expert position)
2022 Recipient NETS Victoria Travel Bursary
2022 Recipient Visions of Australia National Tour Fund (ngaratya exhibition)
2022 Australian Network for Art and Technology Curatorial Circle (SPECTRA)
2022 Victorian Traditional Owner Bush Foods and Botanicals Strategy expert panel
2021 Honorary Associate Museums Victoria (ongoing)
2020 AILAVIC Award for Excellence (community category) The Living Pavilion
2019 Advisor, In Absence, NGV architecture commission, Yhonnie Scarce/Edition Office
2016 Recipient, Wesfarmers Indigenous Arts Leadership Professional Development Bursary
2012 Charlie Perkins/Aurora Foundation travelling scholar (USA/UK)
2011 Internship, Indigenous Art Dept. National Gallery of Victoria
2011 Wesfarmers Indigenous Arts Leadership Program, National Gallery of Australia
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2024 Art Monthly Australasia, First Nations Commissions Special Edition
2024 Shipping Roots: Plant Journeys through Empire
2023 NGV Memory publication
2023 Tarrawarra Soils Project ‘essays’ publication
2023 Tarrawarra Soils Project ‘plant kin’ publication (sole author/artist)
2023 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Classroom, AGSA
2023 Tarrawarra Museum of Art Seven Monuments
2023 Cressida Campbell exhibition publication, National Gallery of Australia
2023 Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Network, Decolonial Salad
2022 Plants: past, present, future (co-author) First Knowledges series
2022 Unlimited Futures: Speculative Visionary Blak + Black Fiction, Fremantle Press
2021-22 Wonderground Journal (multiple issues)
2020 NGV Triennial publication
2019-2021 various academic publications/policy documents (research fellow, UOM)
SELECTED EVENTS / TALKS
2024 Parallel Effect Collective/Wheeler Centre, ‘I’ve been to a parallel world’
2024 DISH, Town Hall Gallery, multiple talks
2024 Keynote Speaker, Learning for Sustainability Conference
2023 ICOMOS 21st General Assembly ‘living heritage’ talk
2022 Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Artist talk
2023 Bunjil Place Gallery artist talks (multiple)
2023 City of Melbourne Green Line Project artist talk
2023 Goldsmiths/University of London/Monash Uni, pedagogies of transition
2023 Melbourne Writer’s Festival, Plants: past, present, future
2023 VIVID Festival panel discussion/AWAYE! National Museum, Sydney
2023 Tarrawarra Museum of Art artist talk, Soils workshop
2023 Byron Bay Writers Festival (multiple panels and talks)
2022 Eucalyptusdom, Powerhouse Museum, in relation/vitality podcast
2022 Power Institute, Barkandji Ways of Being
2022 KNOT Project/Arts Gen, artist talk, ‘food sovereignty’
2022 Victorian College of the Arts, Art Forum
2022 Keynote, Assembly for the Future, Blakfellas University
2022 Migration Museum Keynote address, ‘Yearbook’
2019-2022 NGV, panellist/speaker - multiple exhibition events
2019-2023 guest lectures, UOM, Monash Uni, LaTrobe Uni, RMIT (various faculties)
COLLECTIONS
University of Melbourne
Private collections
Available works;
