New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery has announced that Anna Briers will join the Gallery as Len Lye & Contemporary Art Curator.

An Aotearoa-born curator and writer, Anna has been Curator at The University of Queensland Art Museum (UQ) since 2019. Anna was previously Senior Curator at Shepparton Art Museum and held a number of other roles in Australia and Aotearoa.

Anna gained her Master of Curatorship from The University of Melbourne in 2010 and holds an Honours degree in Art History and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Auckland.

Recent career highlights include the exhibition We Are Electric: Extraction, Extinction and Post-Carbon Futures at UQ Art Museum; and the co-edited anthology of texts entitled Conflict in My Outlook recently published by Perimeter Editions, Melbourne in conjunction with the exhibition Don’t Be Evil.

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre Director Dr Zara Stanhope has welcomed the appointment, which will build on the Gallery’s work with the Len Lye Foundation to maintain and grow awareness, recognition and engagement with Len Lye’s story.

“Anna is a thinker participating in contemporary cultural dialogues who brings an interest in wide range of art forms and a practice based in generative relationships with artists,” Zara says.

“We welcome her passion for curatorial work which will add new connections and conversations for our audiences and global participants in the Govett-Brewster’s programming of Len Lye and contemporary art.”

“We welcome Anna to the Gallery’s team and Ngāmotu and look forward to supporting and launching her ideas and projects within our programme of exhibitions and events in the coming year,” says Gallery Director Dr Zara Stanhope.

Anna will work closely with the Len Lye Foundation, whose Deputy Chair, Andrew Clifford has also welcomed the appointment.

“Anna brings a wide range of interests and energy in the arts and a fitting curatorial and collection management background to the role, which will compliment Len Lye’s broad and kinetic practice. It’s pleasing to see her returning to Aotearoa with significant international experience to continue our work with the Gallery in growing Len’s reputation both here and abroad,” says Andrew.

“The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre has its legacy of being synonymous with robust conceptual ideas and presenting the collection and archive of Aotearoa’s most vibrant 20th century film-maker, kinetic sculptor and thinker—Len Lye,” says Anna.

“As an expatriate curator who has refined their practice overseas for over a decade, I’m delighted to return home to respond meaningfully to the bi-cultural context of Ngāmotu, in a gallery I’ve long admired, placing artists from Aotearoa into conversation with global contemporary artists and ideas.”

“I’m looking forward to joining the team and the Gallery.”

Anna begins her role as Len Lye & Contemporary Art Curator at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre in December 2023.


IMAGE: Anna Briers. Image courtesy of Rhett Hammerton.

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