Visual Arts Criticism

Naomi Cass is the director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography as well as a curator and writer who has worked in the fields of contemporary art, craft and design.

Curator and writer, Naomi Cass has worked in the fields of contemporary art, craft, design and music since completing her honours degree at the University of Melbourne. Naomi is Director of Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) in Fitzroy, Melbourne. In 2009 she initiated Flash a quarterly journal of reviews, interviews and comment on photography and video, published by Centre for Contemporary Photography.

As curator her exhibitions include Fears and Scruples, MaleORDER: Addressing Menswear with Robyn Healy and Tilia Europaea. In her work with the Grainger Museum she produced two programs of contemporary art and music for the Melbourne International Arts Festival Electric-Eye and The Many Faces of Percy Grainger. Her most recent exhibition is the major survey of Simryn Gill’s photography, Simryn Gill: Inland.

Many years ago Naomi was Museum critic for the Herald Sun.

Peter Mares is lead moderator with The Cranlana Programme, an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to developing the ethical decision-making skills of Australia’s leaders. Peter is also contributing editor at Inside Story magazine and adjunct fellow at Swinburne University’s Centre for Urban Transitions. He is a former ABC broadcaster and the author of three books, including No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia’s Housing Crisis (Text 2018).

Patrick McCaughey was art critic of the Age and professor of visual arts at Monash, 1974-1981. Thereafter he spent his life in art museums: as director of the National Gallery of Victoria, the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Ct. and the Yale Center for British Art. He lives in Connecticut and writes.

For over twenty years he has been one of Australia’s best-known art critics, writing a weekly column for the Sydney Morning Herald, and contributing to local and international publications.

He has written numerous catalogue essays, and monographs on artists such as David Strachan, Ari Purhonen and Jeffrey Smart. He has also written on films, travel and even cricket. As a lecturer, John has appeared at colleges and public forums throughout Australia, and has taught Art History and Theory at the National Art School, Sydney.

Phip Murray is an artist and writer and the Director of West Space. She is a board and editorial member of the independent contemporary art journal Un Magazine.

Her previous employment includes lecturing in contemporary art history and theory, and working as an Associate Producer for the Next Wave Festival for which she helped create the artist-run initiative exhibition Containers Village (2006) as well as the interdisciplinary Nightclub projects (2008). Phip has completed a Masters degree through RMIT’s Media Arts department and also studied Arts/Law at the University of Melbourne. She is a sessional lecturer at RMIT for the School of Fine Art (Media Arts) and the School of Interior Design and Architecture.

She is also a Board and Editorial Committee member of the independent contemporary art journal un Magazine. Phip writes often about art, with recent projects including a series of articles for Photofile, a commission for Craft Victoria’s recent Craft Cubed festival, and editing volume 3.2 of un Magazine in 2009, which had an editorial focus on experimental audiovisual practices. She is currently writing a publication for the National Gallery of Victoria that surveys the institution’s history over the past 150 years.