Born 1981, Townsville, QLD
A Girramay, Yidindji, Kuku Yalanji man, Tony Albert is one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists with a longstanding interest in the cultural misrepresentation of Aboriginal people. He is a cultural leader, both as an artist and a curator. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, his multidisciplinary practice considers the ways in which optimism might be utilised to overcome adversity. He courageously engages in difficult conversations to shed light on problematic histories and current injustices faced by First Nations people.
Albert is acknowledged industry wide as a valued ambassador for Indigenous community and culture. In December 2025 he was awarded a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Albert was the 2025 Artistic Director for the 5th National Indigenous Art TrienniaI: After The Rain for the National Gallery of Australia and the inaugural First Nations Curatorial Fellow for the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. He the first Indigenous Trustee for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a member of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Indigenous advisory, a board member for the City of Sydney’s Public Art Panel and member of the Art & Place Board at the Queensland Children’s Hospital.
In 2026, a major survey exhibition of Albert’s expansive practice will be unveiled at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. This follows his 2018 retrospective Visible at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. Remarkably, at just 33 years old, Albert became the youngest artist to receive a survey exhibition at a state institution in Australia.
Albert has received numerous prestigious public commissions and accolades both nationally and internationally. Most recently, he was named the 2025 First Nations Established Artist of the Year by Creative Australia. In 2024, proppaNOW, the acclaimed Indigenous collective Albert co-founded, received the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice (USA). In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the arts, Albert was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University in 2023.
Significant public art commissions include The Big Hose, an iconic outdoor play sculpture for QAGOMA made in collaboration with artist Nell which was launched in November 2025; Inhabitant, a monumental 15-metre-long floating botanical sculpture which welcomes visitors at the entrance of the transformed Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane (2024); Murmurations in collaboration with Angela Tiatia for the Museum of History NSW, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (2023); Unpacking History, a Native Bouquet for New York commissioned for Public Art Fund’s Global Positioning, exhibited on bus shelters throughout New York City, Chicago, and Boston (2022); Two Worlds Colliding, a culturally informed design and artwork for Allianz Sydney Football Stadium (2022); Healing Land, Remembering Country an interactive installation for NIRIN: the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020) and Yininmadyemi Thou didst Let Fall, Hyde Park War Memorial, City of Sydney (2015).
Albert is strongly represented in major national and international collections including Fondation Opal, Switzerland; Tia Art, National Gallery of Australia; National Gallery of Victoria; Australian War Memorial, Canberra; Parliament House New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Art Gallery of Western Australia; Art Gallery of South Australia; and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.