Bazaar Muse

Natalie King OAM is one of Australia’s foremost curators, who has spent her three-decade career cultivating lifelong relationships with artists. She recently pulled of a rare feat: curating her second Venice Biennale.

NATALIE KING AND I ARE INTRODUCING ourselves and settling in for our interview, but I am distracted. She’s sitting at her purple Fiona Lynch-designed desk, and behind her is a wall of framed artworks. Either sensing my interest — we are here to talk art, after all — or seeing my eyes darting around her, she points and names: this one is Kaylene Whiskey’s Dolly on Country; that one is Tracey Moffatt’s I made a camera; here is Destiny Deacon’s Shaken up, which features King’s son, Woody; and there is Yuki Kihara’s Moana Lisa (after da Vinci). There are others — by Nell, Nan Goldin, Val Wens and more.