Nici Cumpston is simultaneously an artist, a curator, an educator, a writer and a builder of relationships.
Having studied fine arts, majoring in Photography and graduating with Honours from the University of South Australia, she has worked as a photographic lecturer at Tauondi Aboriginal Community College, Port Adelaide, as well as at the University of South Australia. She wrote and delivered the inaugural course Indigenous Art, Culture and Design at the South Australian School of Art in 2006 before commencing as the first curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Art Gallery of South Australia from 2008 - 2025. She was the inaugural Artistic Director of Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art from 2014 - 2025, before commencing as Director of Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, in the Monacan Nation, Charlottesville, Virginia USA.
Cumpston has worked with hundreds of artists and since 2008 has curated 16 major exhibitions including national and international touring shows, each with an accompanying catalogue. She has also written numerous catalogue essays for artist’s exhibitions in other state institutions and commercial galleries, as well as national art publications. In acknowledgment of her deep expertise, in 2020 she received the Order of Australia medal for outstanding achievement to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts.
Since 1998 she has been exhibiting her works of art and in that time has been invited to participate in many prestigious artist-in-residence programs, art awards, commissions, group and solo exhibitions. Her work is held in the collections of the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, National Gallery of Australia Canberra, National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne, Parliament House Collection Canberra, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, University of Queensland Art Museum Brisbane, Macquarie Group Collection Sydney, Artbank Melbourne, Flinders University Museum of Art Adelaide, the Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation among many others. She has also been commissioned to create signature works of art for public buildings in Adelaide including the Commonwealth Law Courts, EOS SkyCity and the South Australian Department of Health.
In 2014 she was artist-in-residence, as well as exhibiting works from the series, having-been-there at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her works were included in the international touring exhibition Wall Power: Contemporary Australian Photography curated by Michael Reid Gallery and shown in Cologne, Berlin, London and Paris in 2017 – 2018. In 2018 she travelled to Berlin to present her work in the prestigious exhibition Indigenous Australia: Masterworks from the National Gallery of Australia at me Collectors Room, Berlin and the solo exhibition Calling in at Michael Reid Gallery, Berlin. From 2021-2023 she was included in the international touring exhibition, Naadohbi: To Draw Water at Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba Canada, Melbourne Museum, Australia and Pātaka Art + Museum, Aotearoa, New Zealand and in 2023 – 2025 she co-curated with her sister Zena Cumpston and made new work for the national touring exhibition ngaratya (together, us group, all in it together).
Cumpston’s gentle, quietly spoken demeanour belies a fierce and resolute passion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the development and recognition of their artistic practice. Her life is dedicated to the arts, and she strongly believes that art empowers people’s lives in profound and meaningful ways.