Jessica Clark is a proud palawa/pallawah woman and curator with a background in art history and education, born in lutruwita/trowunna and currently living and working on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne.

Clark currently holds the position of Senior Curator, First Nations Art at the National Gallery of Victoria. Previous institution-based curatorial positions include: Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) (2022-25); Curatorial Manager, Victorian First Peoples Art and Design Fair at Creative Victoria (2024-25); and Ursula Hoff Fellow, University of Melbourne (2024-26).

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. Since it’s original presentation at ACCA in 2023, her exhibition Between Waves, has toured to regional galleries throughout the country including Plimsoll Gallery, TAS; University of the Sunshine Coast Gallery, QLD; Casula Powerhouse, NSW; La Trobe Regional Gallery, VIC; Riddoch Gallery, SA; and a forthcoming presentation at Mildura Art and Culture Centre, VIC.

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) for the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.

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 also a researcher and writer who has published work in a range of contexts. Most recently, written commissions have featured in the accompanying 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.

She is also alumni of UNSW College of Fine Art, Australian Catholic University, and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, having completed a Bachelor of Art History and Theory, (2009), Graduate Diploma Education (Secondary) (2011), and a Master of Arts Management (2017) respectively.

Clark is current board member at NETS Victoria (2024-) and Art Form Advisor at The Substation (2025-). Previously she served as a board member for 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).