Announcing the 2027 Melbourne Art Fair Exhibition Selection Panel
For the 20th edition of the Fair, Melbourne Art Fair welcomes Myles Russell-Cook (Artistic Director and CEO, ACCA), Liz Nowell (Executive Director, Arts Project Australia), Danielle Renshaw (Gallery Co-Director, The Renshaws’), and Adam Stone (Co-Director, Melbourne Sculpture Biennale, Director, LON Gallery, artist) to the 2027 Exhibition Selection Panel.
This group sits close to the centre of the Fair’s initial shaping, helping determine what is seen, how it is framed, and how artists and galleries enter into conversation with audiences. Melbourne Art Fair brings a unique lens, where solo shows and works which are not frequently encountered, new, historically different, or otherwise difficult to categorise are highly encouraged.
Together, this Selection Panel brings experience across contemporary practice, curatorial thinking, and gallery leadership, energising the Fair before it opens to the public.
Myles Russell-Cook is the Artistic Director and CEO of ACCA, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Myles has a long-standing interest in cultural, gender and sexual diversity within both Australian and International contemporary practice, and has worked across a broad range of exhibitions and projects. For over eight years Myles was one of a team of curators who oversaw major contemporary art exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria, including NGV Triennial, and Melbourne Now.
Myles has curated a number of significant exhibitions and programs at NGV including Colony: Frontier Wars (2017), From Bark to Neon (2019), DESTINY (2020), Maree Clarke: Ancestral Memories (2021), Found and Gathered: Rosalie Gascoigne I Lorraine Connelly Northey (2021), Bark Ladies: Eleven artists from Yirrkala (2021), Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection (2022), Wurrdha Marra (2023), and REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie (2024). Internationally, Myles has curated several exhibitions, including a series of shows in collaboration with the Australian Embassy in Paris: DESTIN: l’art de Destiny Deacon (2022), Rituel et Cérémonie: extrait de Mémoires ancestral (2022), Blak Rainbow: L’Art de Dylan Mooney (2023) and La terre est bleue: l’art de Dhambit Munuggurr (2024).
Myles is the curator of the touring show, The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art, presented in partnership with the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. This exhibition is the largest exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art ever presented internationally.
Liz Nowell is a curator, cultural leader, and writer with over 15 years’ experience in Australian and international art. Her work engages with socially responsive practices and focuses on expanding narratives in contemporary art. She has served as Executive Director of Arts Project Australia since 2023 and is currently co-Chair of the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). Previously, she led the Institute of Modern Art, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, and the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia. Her curatorial projects include Rainbow Serpent (Version): Daniel Boyd, Marianna Simnett’s CREATURE (co-curator), and Yhonnie Scarce: Missile Park.
Liz’s contributions to the arts have been recognised through various awards and grants, inclduing a New Work Grant (Early Career) and Early Career Residency Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts, and a Dame Joan Sutherland Foundation Grant. In 2018, she was acknowledged bu Indaily as one of South Australia’s 40 under 40 business leaders. In 2023, she was an Australian Progress Fellow and a resident at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York.
Danielle Renshaw is the owner and director of The Renshaws’, a contemporary art gallery in Brisbane, with a second space set to open in Sydney in 2026. The Renshaws’ represents a reimagined commercial gallery model, focused on delivering artist-led programming and creating tailored opportunities that support meaningful, long-term outcomes for the artists it represents.
Prior to establishing The Renshaws’, Danielle was Director of Ryan Renshaw Gallery (est. 2009), a highly regarded space known for championing conceptual practice and fostering the careers of visionary artists from Australia and internationally.
Danielle is also a respected art consultant and curator, through her work as a director at Renshaw & Kubler. Her curatorial and advisory work spans public art strategy and procurement across major architectural, precinct, and infrastructure projects, with partners including Queensland Ballet, Gold Coast Airport, Brisbane City Council, Blight Rayner, FJC Architects, and Woods Bagot.
Danielle has a BA in Photography & Visual Communications and began her career in New York in fashion photography before moving into feature film production in London and Sydney, developing a strong visual sensibility that continues to inform her work today.
A dedicated arts advocate, Danielle is committed to artist-led practice and is known for her collaborative approach and thoughtful insight.
Adam Stone is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist, curator and gallery director who received his BFA (Hons) from the Victorian College of the Arts.
In 2024, he co-founded the Melbourne Sculpture Biennale, a non-profit organisation dedicated to expanding audiences for critically engaged contemporary sculptural practices and increasing opportunities for artists working in the medium.
Since graduating from the VCA, Stone has exhibited widely, receiving numerous grants and awards, including the Montalto Sculpture Prize, the Fiona Myer Award, the Orloff Family Charitable Trust Scholarship, and travel grants from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust and the City of Boroondara. He has undertaken residencies in the US, China and Australia and produced public artworks for the City of Yarra and Moonee Valley.
Alongside his artistic practice, Stone has curated exhibitions across private, public and non-profit spaces, with select recent projects including: The Stars Know My Name and The Sun at Midnight at the Hellenic Museum, Still Life Pt. II at Verge Gallery, University of Sydney, and Still Life Pt. I at Irene Rose Gallery.
Stone is also the director of LON Gallery, originally established as an artist-run space before transitioning to a representative gallery model in 2019.
His work is held in public and private collections in Australia and Asia.
