Henry Skerritt

Assistant Professor, Art History/Curator, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

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Henry Skerritt is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Curator of Indigenous Arts of Australia at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. His research centers on the engagement of Indigenous peoples with the institutions of art, with a particular methodological focus on the role of Indigenous communities in curating their own art histories. Skerritt has worked on over twenty exhibitions in the United States and Australia, including Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala (Kluge-Ruhe and touring, 2022-25); Irrititja Kuwarri  Tjungu | Past and Present Together: Fifty Years of Papunya Tula Artists (Kluge-Ruhe and touring, 2021-2024); A World of Relations (Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, 2019); Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia (Nevada Museum of Art and touring, 2016-19); and No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting (Nevada Museum of Art and touring, 2015-16). Skerritt has written extensively on Indigenous art, including editing six important catalogues, and contributing essays for publications by Harvard Art Museums; the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth; the National Museum of Australia; the Art Gallery of New South Wales; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

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Edited Books

Beyond Dreamings: The Rise of Indigenous Australian Art in the United States. Charlottesville, VA.: Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, 2019.

The Inside World: Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Memorial Poles. Reno and New York: Nevada Museum of Art and Prestel Publishing, 2019.

 Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia. Reno and New York: Nevada Museum of Art and Prestel Publishing, 2016.

 No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting. Reno and New York: Nevada Museum of Art and Prestel Publishing, 2014.

 

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“Seeing Through Spencer: Gabriel Maralngurra’s Paintings of Baldwin Spencer.” Pacific Arts: The Journal of the Pacific Arts Association, 14, no.1-2 (2015): 106-119.

 

Selected Book Chapters           

“The Country Speaks Through Her.” In Noŋgirrnga Marawili: From my Heart and Mind, edited by Cara Pinchbeck, 34-45. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2018.

 “To See a World: Picturing Nature through the Prism of Midawarr.” In Midawarr: Harvest, edited by John Wolseley and Will Stubbs. Canberra: National Museum of Australia, 2017.

“Just Weather: The Art and Philosophy of Shane Pickett.” In Meeyakba: Shane Pickett, edited by Nick Tapper with Diane Mossenson and Violet Pickett, 85-99. Perth: Mossenson Art Foundation, 2017.

“A Stitch in Time: How Aboriginal Australian Artists are Reweaving Our World.” In Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, edited by Stephen Gilchrist, 16-27. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2016.

“The Biggest Name in all the World: Locating Ngarra in the Global Contemporary.” In Ngarra: The Texta Drawings, edited by Nick Tapper, 21-29. Perth: Mossenson Art Foundation Press, 2015.

Nyilyari Tjapangati: Vivre le Rêve/Living the Dream. Bilingual catalogue publication in French and English. Paris: Arts d’Australie, 2015.

“Is Art History Any Use to Aboriginal Artists? Gabriel Maralngurra’s Contact Paintings.” Double Desire: Transculturation and Indigenous Contemporary Art, edited by Ian McLean, 223-241. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.

 “Strange Relatives: Negotiating the Borderlines in East Kimberley Painting.” In Crossing Cultures: The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art, edited by Stephen Gilchrist, 97-107. Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2012.