Melanie Eastburn

Melanie Eastburn is an Australian museum curator, Senior Curator of Asian art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) since 2016, who worked at Phnom Penh National Museum of Cambodia in 2003 – 2004.

Born and raised in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands — her father, David Eastburn, was a high school teacher who taught for many years in the Hela and New Ireland Provinces — she spoke both English and Mendi (Angal heneng) languages in her childhood. She witnessed Papua New Guinea’s first Independence Day celebrations in Kavieng, New Ireland, on 16 Sept 1975, and was immersed in Niugini [indigenous name for ‘New Guinea’] culture. Later, she was introduced to the traditional and modern print patterns by several artists pertaining to the local modern art movement, in particular Sili Koriam. This early interest led to the publication of her first book, Papua New Guinea Prints [see The National, Port Moresby, 25 Aug. 2025].

Moving to Australia, Melanie Eastburn studied Art History and Curatorship at The Australian National University (ANU) from 1994 to 1997 and had her first professional experience with the Powerhouse museum group in Sydney [May 2001- April 2003]. After enrolling in the Australian Volunteers International program, she went to Phnom Penh, working as Research and Planning Officer at the National Museum of Cambodia (NMC) from April 2003 to September 2004. With NMC deputy director Hab Touch, she studied Khmer art in situ and worked on a survey of Cambodia’s provincial museums, isolated from Phnom Penh during the long years of the civil war. She had a hands-on experience of the challenge of tackling the multiple challenges of looted art recovery and protection of the remaining cultural heritage. Lessons were learnt as, back to Australia and Curator of Asian Art at the Canberra National Gallery of Australia (NGA) [Jul 2004 — May 2016], she got involved in the return of cultural material from Australia to India and Nepal.

The Cambodian experience helped Melanie Eastburn in expanding the contacts with art institutions across Asia in order to foster the Australian public’s interest in Asian art ancient and modern. As an advocate of inter-museum loan policy instead of purchasing artworks of dubious origin — the option favored by major US museums — , she initiated a long-term loan of Khmer sculptures from NMC to the NGA, leading to the major cultural event Re-visiting the Age of Angkor (2016), during which she spoke about Ancient Khmer art at the related symposium.

At the Art Gallery of NSW since May 2016, Melanie Eastburn has furthered these choices with noted exhibitions of art from Japan, India and South Korea, culminating with the thematic, transnational art show dedicated to the representations of Vishnu and its avatars (June-October 2026).

Select Publications

Papua New Guinea Prints, Canberra, National Gallery of Australia (NGA), 2007, 120 p. ISBN13 978 – 0642541680.
[Curator presentation exhibition] Black robe, white mist: art of Rengetsu, NGA, 2007.
[Curator presentation of exhibition] Divine worlds: Indian painting (2012)
[Curator presentation of exhibition] Glorious, Sydney, AGNSW, 2017.
[Curator presentation of exhibition] Japan Supernatural, Sydney, AGNSW, 2019.
[Curator presentation of exhibition] Lee Ufan: Quiet Resonance, Sydney, AGNSW, 2025.
[editor with Chaitanya Sambrani] Avatar: Forms of Vishnu, Sydney, AGNSW, June 2026, 336 p.
“Golden and radiant as the sun: female presence and the avatars of Vishnu”, in Avatar: Forms of Vishnu, 2026: 69 – 116.

Photo: Speaking at the symposium Re-visiting the Age of Angkor, NGA, 2016 [screenshot].