Gordon Bennett (1955–2014) lived and worked in Brisbane and is acclaimed as one of Australia’s most significant and critically engaged contemporary artists. He is recognised for his perspectives on the post-colonial experience, particularly in the Australian context, with much of his work mapping alternative histories and questioning racial categorisations and stereotypes. Bennett regularly adopted the persona ‘John Citizen’ as a means of confronting the rhetoric of identity and the politics of categorisation in Australian art. Solo exhibitions include Unfinished Business – The Art of Gordon Bennett (2020–2021), QAGOMA, Brisbane; Gordon Bennett: Be Polite (2016), Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Outsider / Insider: The Art of Gordon Bennett (2012), AAMU, Utrecht; Gordon Bennett: a survey, (2007), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Select group exhibitions include 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art, Potter Museum of Art (2025), University of Melbourne; Espressioni Con Frazioni, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (2022), Italy; A Year in Art: Australia 1992 (2021–2022), Tate Modern, London; 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2014), Berlin; Documenta 13 (2012), Kassel, Germany; Cubism and Australian Art (2009), Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne; 16th Biennale of Sydney: Revolutions – forms that turn (2008), Sydney; Three Colours: Gordon Bennett and Peter Robinson *(2004), Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.

Emily Karaka was born in 1952 in Tāmaki Makaurau, where she continues to live and work. She is of Ngāpuhi (Ngāti Hine and Ngāti Kahu o Torongare) and Waikato-Tainui (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Te Kawerau ā Maki, Ngāti Tamaoho, Te Ākitai Waiohua, Ngāti Rori-Te Ahiwaru, Ngāti Mahuta, and Ngāti Tahinga) affiliations, and has been exhibiting since 1977. Her paintings draw on diverse art making traditions, including toi whakairo (carving) and abstract expressionism. Characterised by dazzling colour and emotional intensity, they frequently incorporate text and tie into the artist’s long standing work advocating kaitiakitanga (stewardship) and mana motuhake (self-determination). Karaka has produced major paintings for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN (2020), the landmark Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art (2020–2021) at Toi o Tāmaki, and Aloha Nō Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025. Recent solo exhibitions include Matariki Ring of Fire (2022) at Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, which grew out of Karaka’s 2021 McCahon House residency, and Ka Awatea, A New Dawn (2024), curated by Hoor Al Qasimi and Megan Tamati-Quennell, at Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates. Her works are held by important institutions in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad, including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and Sharjah Art Foundation.