Willurai Kirkbright

Biennial lab artist

Willurai Kirkbright is a Wiradjuri woman based in the Blue Mountains with tribal roots in Northern NSW. A multi-disciplinary artist, having studied film at Eora and with a history in performing arts, she identifies fore mostly as an installation artist due to it having the least amount of conventions.

Kirkbright believes in art as activism, breaking conventions and community engagement. She is an educator and facilitator, focused on truth telling and empowering disadvantaged minorities. Growing up in the city and in the bush and carrying conflicting bloodlines she explores the complexities of living between worlds. She delves into the uncomfortable and essential corners of the human psyche. Highly conceptual and immersive, her work often explores issues of identity, gender, colonialism, displacement and interconnected histories.

A contemporary artist, juxtaposing traditional art forms with modern ones, clashing notions of outsider art, she pushes to expand the definition of ‘art’. With three solo exhibitions, over a dozen group shows and over fifty major creative projects by the age of 30, she lives to create. Kirkbright has also established three separate art spaces in Sydney and curated over 40 exhibitions.