Sharmila Wood is an Independent Curator working internationally from Boorloo/Perth, Western Australia. Developing exhibitions, gatherings, iterative research and long-term collaborations with both artists and curators, she is interested in art as a space for exchange and social change, bringing different practices and forms of knowledge into relation.
Her practice emerges from intersectionality, and she has a particular interest in exhibition-making across and beyond conventional institutional contexts, working with participatory and process-based artistic approaches. Her curatorial work often begins between disciplines, places and communities, and asks how artistic practice can contribute to emergent forms of world-building.
Craft is a continuing thread through her practice, understood not only through objects and making, but as embodied knowledge: a way in which cultural memory, labour, material intelligence and relationships to place are transmitted and transformed.
Sharmila approaches curating as a way of2026 Advisor ISCP, New York City, Contemporary at Blue Star (USA), Art on the Move and Creative Australia Producer Khoj Studios x IOTA When you Look at the Ocean You See the Sky, New Delhi Convener Indian Ocean Craft Triennial Curatorium Curator Actions for the Earth: Art, Care and Ecology, produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York City. Curator MAITRI Residency: Kochi, Jaipur and New Delhi Co-curator 120 BPM, with Manique Hendricks , Tin Sheds Gallery School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Co Curator La Trobe Art Institute with Amelia Wallin. Writing : 120 BPM, published by Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Writing: Where the Water Leads Us with Amelia Wallin, La Trobe Art Institute. Facilitator: Archive and Collective Creativity Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Artists: Ackroyd & Harvey (United Kingdom), Lhola Amira (South Africa), Alyson Sillon (Netherlands), Ana Mendieta (Cuba / United States), Arahmaiani (Indonesia), Cecilia Vicuña (Chile / United States), Daniel Jan Martin (Australia), Debashish Paul (India), Eric-Paul Riege (United States), Eugenia Lim (Australia), Gurjeet Singh (India), Hylozoic/Desires — Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser (India / Germany), Jenna Lee (Australia), Juha van ’t Zelfde (Netherlands), Justin Talplacido Shoulder x Matthew Stegh (Australia), Kadambari Koli (India), Katie West (Australia), Khvay Samnang (Cambodia), Lily-Mae Kerley (Australia), lololol — Sheryl Cheung & Xia Lin (Taiwan), Manisha Parekh (India), Mei Swan Lim (Australia), Melissa Cameron (Australia), Minaxi May (Australia), Parag Tandel (India), Patrina Munuŋgurr (Australia), Pauline Oliveros (United States), Priyageetha Dia (Singapore), Sao Sreymao (Cambodia), Sayan Chanda (India), Shaleen Wadhwana (India), Tabita Rezaire (France / French Guiana), Tarryn Gill (Australia), Tomoko Hayashi (Japan), underFOOT Collective (Australia), Urbonas Studio (Lithuania / United States), Wahida Ahmed (India), Yoko Ono (Japan / United States), Zarina Muhammad (Singapore), Zheng Bo (China / Hong Kong).
Sharmila at the Art Institute of Chicago facilitating a conversation with the Curatorial Exchange.