Biographies

/ Nicole Durling

With a background as a practising ceramicist and lecturer in the medium, Nicole Durling was appointed in June 2021 as Executive Director of Craft Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to this Nicole was Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart, including serving as Senior Curator for 15 years, where she was responsible for leading the Curatorial and Collections teams. Selected as one of Mona’s foundation team, she was a key collaborator in the building design, curatorial direction, brand establishment, design and exhibition installation of the Mona collection prior to its opening in 2011. Nicole has curated and developed projects including solo exhibitions, sound art performances, ephemeral interventions and permanent commissions. From 2009 – 2017 she was one of the Artistic Curators for MONA FOMA festival and curated several projects for the Dark Mofo festival from 2013 to 2017. Nicole also holds a non-executive Board position for Melbourne’s, RISING festival.

/ John McNaught

John McNaught is a versatile and prolific artist working in the Aspire studios within Project Ability in Glasgow. In 2006, John suffered a massive stroke, which inhibited his speech and movement. John has been attending Project Ability since 2010, igniting his passion for painting and building his confidence with his practice.

John has a wonderful intuitive response to colour, shape and composition that breathes life and emotion into his work. His eclectic paintings of landscape and portraiture have been exhibited nationally and internationally.