Rhana Jean Devenport (born 1960) is an Australian-born art curator and museum professional. She was director of the

Auckland Art Gallery Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

from 2013 to 2018, and is director of the

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Early life

Devenport was born and grew up in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Australia.

Career

Devenport began her career as an art and theatre teacher, and a practising artist. From 1994 to 2004 she was senior project officer with the Asia Pacific Triennial at the

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Gallery ...

. She was visual arts manager with the Sydney Festival in 2004, an independent curator, curator in residence at

Artspace Artspace may refer to: * Artspace (website), an online marketplace based in New York City * Artspace, New Haven, an art gallery in downtown New Haven, Connecticut * Artspace Mackay, Mackay, Queensland, Australia * Artspace NZ, a visual arts cent ...

, Auckland for three months in 2005, manager of public programmes and publications with the Biennale of Sydney in 2005-2006. Devenport was appointed as director of the

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is a contemporary art museum at New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. The gallery receives core funding from the New Plymouth District Council. Govett-Brewster is recognised internationally for contemporary art. H ...

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

in 2006. In this role she led the fundraising effort for the development of the

Len Lye Centre The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is a contemporary art museum at New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. The gallery receives core funding from the New Plymouth District Council. Govett-Brewster is recognised internationally for contemporary art. H ...

. She was appointed director of the Auckland Art Gallery in 2013. In 2015, Devenport took part in the second annual Global Museum Leaders Colloquium, held at the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. In 2015, Devenport curated New Zealand artist

Lisa Reihana Lisa Marie Reihana (born 1964) is a New Zealand artist. Her video work, ''In Pursuit of Venus nfected' (2015), which examines early encounters between Polynesians and European explorers, was featured at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Early life ...

's video work ''In Pursuit of Venus nfected' at Auckland Art Gallery. Reihana was selected to present this work as New Zealand's representative at the 2017

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, with Devenport as the curator for the presentation. Devenport left the Auckland Art Gallery to become director of the

in October 2018. She remains in this position .

Honours

In the

2018 New Year Honours The 2018 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

, Devenport was appointed an

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rend ...

, for services to arts governance.

Publications

As editor and/or contributor: *''

: In pursuit of Venus'', Auckland: Auckland Art Gallery, 2015. *''Groundworks / Bill Culbert'', New Plymouth: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2013. *''

Laurence Aberhart Laurence Geoffrey Aberhart (born 1949) is a New Zealand photographer. Biography Aberhart was born in Nelson in 1949, along with three siblings, and was educated at Nelson College from 1963 to 1966.''Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–200 ...

: Recent Taranaki Photographs'': Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2012. *''Peter Robinson : snow ball blind time'', New Plymouth: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2010 *''Alex Monteith : accelerated geographies'', New Plymouth: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2010. *''Lisa Reihana: Digital Marae'', New Plymouth: Govett Brewster Art Gallery, 2007.

Early life

Career

Honours

Publications

References

Further reading