Nici Cumpston OAM is a Barkandji artist, curator and writer who is also of Afghan, English and Irish heritage. She is a descendant of the First peoples from the Barka (Darling River) of western New South Wales, Australia and is the Director of Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. Prior to her appointment in 2025, she served as the inaugural curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia from 2008 – 2025. She was the artistic director of the internationally renowned Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art from 2014 - 2025. Tarnanthi is held annually and features artists from across the country in dozens of exhibitions and events, a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Tarnanthi Art Fair where artists are fully supported to sell works of art directly to the public.
Cumpston has worked with hundreds of artists and curated sixteen major exhibitions since 2008, each with an accompanying exhibition catalogue. She has written numerous catalogue essays for artists’ exhibitions in other state institutions and commercial galleries.
For two decades, Cumpston has been a specialist advisor on numerous state-based and national arts committees and boards. She also has represented the state government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts on international exchanges to China, Europe, Canada, and the United States. Her contributions have been recognized with the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for outstanding achievement to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts in 2020.
Cumpston studied fine arts, specializing in photography, at the University of South Australia and has an ongoing practice where she creates large scale hand-colored photographic portraits of the ancient trees and waterways along the Barka. Her work is held in major institutions and private collections nationally and internationally, and she has been commissioned to create signature works for public buildings.
