José Da Silva

José Da Silva has twenty-five years of curatorial and management experience in art museums and private and public sector environments. Since early 2018, he has been the Director of Sydney’s UNSW Galleries, overseeing a dynamic program of contemporary Australian art and design. He is also the Chair of University Art Museums Australia, driving advocacy and research for art museums and galleries in the Australian university sector. Previously, he led the Australian Cinémathèque – an international market leader for presenting moving image and media art – and contributed to an ambitious program of exhibitions, acquisitions, and projects at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art for over a decade. He contributed to curatoriums for the ‘Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018, and curated the major exhibitions ‘David Lynch: Between Two Worlds’ (2015) and ‘Earth and Elsewhere’ (2013).

José is deeply committed to working closely with Australian artists to develop projects that explore contemporary visual and material cultures. In 2014, he curated the 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia. At UNSW Galleries, he has led the development and management of more than 50 exhibition projects and curated ‘Paul Knight: L’ombre de ton ombre’ (2023–24, with Pip Wallis and Hannah Matthews), ‘The Party’ (2023, with Nick Henderson), ‘Izabela Pluta: Nihilartikel’ (2022), ‘Gordon Hookey: A MURRIALITY’ (2022, with Liz Nowell); ‘Jacobus Capone: Orison’ (2022); ‘Sam Smith: Capture’ (2021); ‘The Colour Line: W. E. B Du Bois and Archie Moore’ (2021); ‘Friendship as a Way of Life’ (2020, with Kelly Doley); ‘Wansolwara: One Salt Water (2020, with Mikala Tai); ‘Debra Porch: Art Should Make Life More Interesting Than Art’ (2019); and ‘Gemma Smith: Rhythm Sequence’ (2019). Alongside these, he has developed artist-led major projects with Lillian O’Neil (2024), David Sequeira (2024), Liam Fleming (2022), Megan Cope (2021), Kirsten Coelho (2021), and Shivanjani Lal (2020). He has a Master of Arts (Research) and Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from the Queensland University of Technology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Western Sydney – Nepean.