Cementa is proud to announce the curator for Cementa26, Sebastian Henry-Jones. Sebastian is an emerging curator with strong roots in the Artist Run community, a practice grounded in DIY thinking and an interest in dissolving distinctions between ‘contemporary’ art and broader culture.
Sebastian is the current Curator at West Space, in Melbourne and has worked as Curatorial Assistant for the 22nd and 23rd editions of the Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN and Rivus, and as guest curator for the 2023 Churchie Emerging Art Prize at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. In 2024, Sebastian co-curated Site School (is cool) with Lana Nguyen as a part of Parallel Structures. The project engaged artists and farmers local to a community farm in Albury Wodonga through skill-sharing workshops that expanded ideas around art and its use-value in a regional context. Sebastian has staged group exhibitions and independent projects across the East Coast of the continent. He is a co-founder of DIY and experimental arts platforms Desire Lines and Emerson, and former editor at Runway Journal.
Cementa is excited to welcome Sebastian to the team and looks forward to exploring the role that art can play outside of the conventional space of contemporary art as we travel together toward Cementa26
When we asked Sebastian what he was most excited about in curating our festival, responded ‘Cementa is a unique context to think about the long-term impact of artistic practice on a place and its community. I’m so excited to work with a group of local people, artists and the Cementa team on a project that centers artmaking as a collective pursuit, in service of the way people live and understand their lives in Kandos, on Wiradjuri Country.’
Photo: Janelle Low 2023 West Space
