Brook Andrew (b.1970, Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal/Australia) has an interdisciplinary practice that centers on Indigenous ways of knowing, cultural sovereignty and the enduring impact of colonial systems, often activating museum collections and public spaces to reframe dominant historical narratives. Drawing on his Wiradjuri mark-making traditions, language and cultural memory, Andrew connects ancestral knowledge with contemporary global conditions.
In 2017, Andrew’s importance was recognised with a major solo exhibition, Brook Andrew: The Right to Offend is Sacred, at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Since then, his works have been presented in many significant exhibitions across the world, including The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art, touring exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA; Denver Art Museum, USA, et al (2025-2028); I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies, Autograph, London, UK (2025); ARTIST ACTIVIST ARCHIVIST: BERNHARD LÜTHI INVITES, Foundation Opale, Lens, Switzerland (2024); Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2023); UN/LEARNING AUSTRALIA, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea (2022).
Since the mid-1990s, Andrew has developed a pioneering approach to museum intervention, beginning with Dispersed Treasures (1996) at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. More recently, Andrew has created major projects in collaboration with significant international institutions including the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris (2020) and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2015). These works critically engage archives and collections, foregrounding Indigenous presence and agency within institutional frameworks.
Through his artistic lens, Andrew is Adjunct Curator ngurambang-ayinya (First Nations), Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (2023-ongoing). In his role as Director of Reimagining Museums and Collections at the University of Melbourne (2022–ongoing), he founded BLAK C.O.R.E, a collective driven by First Nations methodologies, research and cultural practices. Andrew was the artistic director of the First Nations and artist-led NIRIN: the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020). Following this work, he was an international advisor for the Sámi Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022).
His works can be found in the collections of: Art Jameel Collection, Dubai (UAE), Kadist Foundation, Paris and San Francisco (USA), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (South Korea), Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (Australia), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), the National Gallery of Victoria (Australia), the National Portrait Gallery (Australia), National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery (Australia), Art Gallery of South Australia, amongst others
Andrew lives and works in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia and Medellin, Colombia.