Felicity Fenner

Felicity Fenner is a writer and curator of contemporary art, and has curated over 40 exhibitions of Australian and international art. Her latest book, 'Curating in a Time of Ecological Crisis: Biennales as agents of change', was published in 2022 (Oxford: Routledge).

Felicity is Chair of the City of Sydney’s Public Art Advisory Panel and recently curated 'City Dialogue: public art interventions + the Biennale of Sydney', shown at Customs House, Sydney, 2019-2021. Her book about the role of public art in urban spaces across the globe, titled 'Running the City: why public art matters', was published in 2017 by NewSouth Publishing. She is an advisor on public art projects to corporate organisations, local and state governments.

Prior to her appointment as Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design she was the inaugural Director of UNSW Galleries, Sydney (2013-2018), her dynamic program of international contemporary art swiftly establishing the new Galleries as a leading centre for art and ideas.

In 2011–2015 she was a lead researcher on 'Curating Cities', a major Australian Research Council project that investigated the world’s best practice eco-sustainable public art and was delivered in partnership with the City of Sydney, resulting in a comprehensive and continuing public art database.

Felicity was co-curator of Visual Arts for the Perth Festival (2017–2019) and has curated exhibitions for the 2009 Venice Biennale and the 2013 International Symposium of Electronic Arts. Other projects include 'Michael Nyman: CineOpera' in 2011, the 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, and Primavera 2005 at the MCA in Sydney. In 2013 she co-curated 'Making Change' for the National Art Museum of China, Beijing, which was a finalist in the Australian Arts in Asia Awards; and in 2014 she brought to Australia Richard Mosse’s 'The Enclave', named by ABC Arts as one of Australia’s top three visual arts presentations that year. Felicity's international new media exhibition, 'People Like Us', toured to 15 public galleries across Australia (2016-2019).