Elyse Goldfinch is a curator and writer living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. She has curated, co-curated and produced over 20 exhibitions across non-profit and independent spaces, collaborating with living artists to develop ambitious and ground-breaking projects. Elyse is currently CEO, Next Wave where she oversees a program of exhibitions, creative development, events and partnerships, supporting early-career artists working across multiple art forms.

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Most recently Elyse was Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art where her curatorial projects included Tina Stefanou: You Can’t See Speed (2025), Tennant Creek Brio: Juparnta Ngattu Minjinypa Iconocrisis (2024), From the other side (2023-24), and Lucy Guerin: NEWRETRO (2023). Previously, she was ​co-Chair and co-Director at Firstdraft, Australia's longest running Artist Run Initiative; and Associate Curator at Artspace Sydney; alongside other roles including the Curatorial Team of the Australian Pavilion at the 59th La Biennale di Venezia; and coordinator for Contemporary Arts Organisations Australia, a network of sixteen non-profit peer organisations from every state and territory across Australia.

 

She was selected to curate the 2017 Greenway Art Prize, an award focusing on the intersection of art and the natural environment; and has been invited as a judge of the 2021 Rookwood Cemetery Sculpture Prize. Elyse has written for print and online art journals including Ocula, Art & Australia, and un Magazine, alongside contributing texts to Angelica Mesiti and Mel O’Callaghan’s monographs and the National Gallery of Australia’s upcoming Know My Name catalogue.

 

Elyse has been invited to speak at the National Gallery of Australia as part of the Melbourne Art Book Fair, Art Gallery of South Australia as part of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference (AAANZ) and at University of New South Wales Art & Design (UNSW&D) on a panel about Contemporary Curating. She holds a Master of Art Curating from the University of Sydney and a  Bachelor of Art Theory (Hons.) from UNSW Art & Design.