Jessica Clark is a proud palawa/pallawah woman, born in lurtruwita/trowunna and currently living and working on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne.

She has a background in art history and art education – having completed a Bachelor of Art History and Theory, UNSW College of Fine Art (2009), Graduate Diploma Education (Secondary), ACU (2011), and a Master of Arts Management, RMIT University (2017).

Clark currently holds several institution-based positions: Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA); Curatorial Manager, Victorian First Peoples Art and Design Fair at Creative Victoria; and Ursula Hoff Fellow (2024-26), University of Melbourne.

Recent independent and collaborative exhibition projects include: Tennant Creek Brio: juparnta ngattu minjinypa iconocrisis (2024), From the other side (2023-24) and Between Waves (2023) at ACCA; breathing space (2021) and one (&) another (2020) at Margaret Lawrence Gallery; In and of this place (2021) at Benalla Art Gallery [Online]; and Experimenta Life Forms: International Triennial of Media Art (2021-2023) national touring exhibition. 

Alongside her extensive exhibition history, Clark has worked in varying curatorial and art education-based contexts including public art projects such as Law of the Land (2016-19), and developing a range of dedicated programs and resources including Tjitjiku Tjukurpa (2019), and for her curated exhibitions; Between Waves; Experimenta Lifeforms; VIETNAM: ONE IN, ALL IN (2019-2021); andTELL: Contemporary Indigenous Photography (2017), Ballarat International Foto Biennale (2017-2018).

She is alumni of the International Curators Program: Asia Pacific Triennial x TarraWarra Biennial (2021-2023), PIAD First Nations Colloquium, South Africa (2019), Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Cultural Keepers Program (2017-2020), Wesfarmers Indigenous Arts Leadership Program (2018), Signature Works: Innovation Lab (2018), and the First Nations Curators Program for the Venice Biennale (2017). 

Clark is a researcher and writer who has been published widely in a range of contexts. Most recently, written commissions have featured in the forthcoming exhibition catalogues for 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art,  University of Melbourne (2024) and Welcome to Barerareungar, Murate Art District, Florence (2024), as well as Art + Australia Online and Art Monthly Australasia (2023).

She holds a PhD Fine Art and Music (2023), Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, having completed practice-led curatorial research that, through a series of three original curated exhibition projects, investigated how intercultural curatorial models reframe and redefine narratives and understandings of Aboriginal art. Her PhD thesis was awarded The Chancellor's Prize for Excellence 2024.

Clark has previously served as a board member of Experimenta (2022-2024) and has contributed to several selection panels including: Parramatta Artist Studios (2023); Georges Mora Fellowship (2023); Melbourne Art Fair Indigenous Art Centre Program (2023); and Incinerator Art Prize for Social Change (2023).