John Barrett-Lennard is interested in relationships between a sense of centeredness and of transience, states of in-betweenness and contemporary hyper-mobility. His current projects consider the spaces between locatedness (often tied to place, origins, accent or cultural history) and cosmopolitanism. He is keen to explore the distance between particular and focused contexts, and larger forces, changes, dispersed networks and widely shared experiences. His curatorial work may take the form of projects with individual artists, group or thematic exhibitions and of critical writing in a range of settings. They often involve consideration of influences and conjunctions, and how these are mediated, reinterpreted and represented by artists and institutions, both in the arts and in wider social settings.

John Barrett-Lennard is a freelance art curator and writer. He has wide experience gained over nearly three decades, curating a broad range of innovative projects in contemporary art and art museum settings as well as in non-traditional and public spaces. He has been responsible for curating major national exhibitions, including the Australian pavilion at the Biennale of Venice and the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. As a gallery director he has led a major contemporary art space and two large university art museums. He initiated ARX, Australia’s first major exchange project involving Australian and SE Asian artists. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the art history program at the University of Western Australia. He lives and was born in Perth though completed much of his education in Canada.