About

Gina Fairley is an arts journalist and maker. The first chapter of her career she worked in the gallery sector across Australia and America (1990-2004). The next 10-years she honed her career as a writer and freelance curator working between Sydney and Southeast Asia (2004-2014). She has been the National Visual Arts Editor for ArtsHub (Australia) for the past ten years, and in 2021 (in the middle of the COVID pandemic), started a studio practice with glass artist Scott Chaseling, in the Southern Highlands in regional NSW. Small Impact Studio.

Follow her on Instagram: @fairleygina

The past…

Gina started her career working in a regional gallery, then worked for Opera Australia, before winning a green card in the lottery and moving to San Francisco where she was a Director at Haines Gallery. She returned to pick up the role of Exhibition Co-ordinator for the Biennale of Sydney, before again taking her career overseas – this time the catalyst being a year-long residency with Rimbun Dahan in Malaysia. It kickstarted a love of contemporary Southeast Asian Art, living half of year in Asia for 15-years, writing and curating.

During this time she held the post of Regional Contributing Editor for Asian Art News and World Sculpture News (Hong Kong, 2005-2013), was the Editorial Desk for Philippines ArtAsiaPacific; wrote regularly for the Australian magazines Eyeline, Art Monthly Australia and Australian Art Collector, and has published essays and reviews for countless art magazines internationally.

Her curatorial practice fleshes out those ideas with more tangible links between Australia and Southeast Asia. She has curated the museum exhibitions: Beyond Frame Philippine Photomedia (Philippines/Australia 2008-09); retrospective Roberto M.A. Robles Salusoy, Ateneo Art Gallery (Manila 2011); Trans/portable for independent venue MO_space (Manila 2012); UnBound, commissioned by Australian Embassy Manila for Yuchengco Museum (2013), and Beyogmos: Mai Nguyen-Long for Wollongong Art Gallery (2014).

She’s presented guest lectures in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, and delivered the course for arts professionals Effective Art Writing at the Ateneo de Manila University (2010), and a version for artists at during a residency at Cannonball Miami (2014), where she was a visiting critic / curator, and also the National Art School Sydney (2014-2016).

For over a decade she was co-director of the window gallery SLOT with artist Tony Twigg. Spliced between a laundry and a Thai take-out, they presented over 120 exhibitions to the street. Simply, she is interested in art that flourishes within the gaps and hyphenated spaces.

In 2014, Gina put down her travelling shoes, and reconnected with Australia taking on the role of National Visual Arts Editor for ArtsHub – a position she still holds today.