True Believers

From those who still care, paying attention, asking what’s next?

True Believers brings together artists and organisers who’ve stayed in the art world—through its shifts, its challenges and its contradictions.

Join them as they talk about belief, burnout, soft power, and what it takes to keep going with care and imagination.

Glenn Barkley | Speaker
David Marr | Moderator
Richard Perram OAM | Speaker
Myles Russell-Cook | Speaker
Talia Smith | Speaker

Glenn Barkley is an artist, writer, curator and gardener based between the Shoalhaven and Sydney, NSW, Australia. His work operates in the space between these interests drawing upon the history of ceramics, popular song, the garden and conversations about art and the internet. Major exhibitions include ‘experimental idiocy’, Sullivan+Strumpf (2024); ‘the electrical experience’, Sullivan+Strumpf (2023), ‘Plant Your Feet’, Shoalhaven Regional Gallery (2022), ‘The Urn of Bitter Prophecy’, Sullivan + Strumpf (2021); ‘Regarding George Ohr’, Boca Raton Musuem of Art, Florida USA (2017); ‘yetmorecontemporaryart’, Artspace, Sydney (2017); the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: ‘Magic Object’, Art Gallery of South Australia (2016); ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’, Westspace, Melbourne (with Angela Brennan) (2016); ‘Watching Clouds Pass the Moon’, Lake Macquarie Regional Gallery, NSW (2016); and ‘Glazed and Confused: Ceramics in Contemporary Art Practice’, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, NSW (2014). Barkley was previously senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2008–14) and curator of the University of Wollongong Art Collection (1996–2007). In 2023, Barkley launched his book Ceramics: An Atlas of Forms, a global cultural study of the history of ceramics, sharing the stories of over 100 objects, honouring the artists who have left their mark on this timeless practice. This coincided with the curation of brick vase clay cup jug, a look at the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s collection. Barkley was a finalist in the 2017 Sidney Myer Ceramics Award and was the 2025 winner of the Reimagine Art Prize. His work is held in numerous collections both nationally and internationally, including the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Shepparton Art Museum and Artbank, Sydney.

David Marr is widely regarded as one of Australia’s most influential commentators, writing on subjects such as politics, censorship, the media and the arts. He has been a journalist since 1973 and is the recipient of four Walkley awards for journalism Over the years David Marr has written about politics, society and the arts for the National Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Guardian. His books include Patrick White, A Life (1991) and Dark Victory written with Marian Wilkinson (2003) plus half a dozen Quarterly Essays on political leaders from John Howard via Bill Shorten to George Pell. Lately his essays, stories and speeches exploring Australia over the last 45 years have been collected in My Country. He lives in Sydney with his partner Sebastian Tesoriero, his collaborator on Killing for Country (2023), a reckoning with the role of Marr’s family in the bloody frontier wars of Queensland. He is host, Late Night Live on ABC Radio National.

Richard Perram OAM has a long and varied career in the arts having been Visual Art Project Officer at the Australia Council, Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne, Executive Officer of Arts Queensland, Executive Officer of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, and from 2004 until his retirement in 2017 Director of Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG). Richard curated many exhibitions for BRAG including: Baubles, Bangles & Beads: Australian Contemporary Jewellery (2006), Light Sensitive Material: works from the Verghis Collection (2009), AES+F: The Feast of Trimalchio(2012), Stars + Stripes: American art of the 21st Century from the Goldberg Collection (2014), Beyond Belief: the sublime in contemporary art (2017), and the award-winning TheUnflinching Gaze: photo media and the male figure (2017).  In 2014 Richard was awarded an OAM for services to the visual arts in particular the museums and galleries sector.

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 is the curator of the upcoming 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.

Talia Smith is an artist and curator originally from Aotearoa New Zealand but now based in Sydney, Australia. She is of Cook Island, Samoan and Pakeha heritage. She has curated major exhibitions for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the Singapore Photography festival, MAMA Albury and IMA Brisbane among others. Her writing has been published for various journals and artist essays such as Memo review, Art New Zealand and the World Weather Network program and in 2026 will be published in the new anthology of Pacific writing titled Fresh off the Boat. Talia has completed curatorial residencies in Singapore, Germany and the Nordics. She currently works as the Coordinator Programming at Blacktown Arts and holds an MFA (research) from UNSW.

Curated by Micheal Do

A valid ticket to Sydney Contemporary 2025 is required for entry to this talk. We recommend arriving 10 minutes before the talk’s start time. Buy tickets now.

Image Credit: 1987 Opening Lotti Smorgon Gallery, Image courtesy of ACCA Archive.