Virginia Keft
Dr Virginia Keft is a Muruwari artist living and working on Dharawal Country (Wollongong, NSW).
Through weaving, sculpture, painting and installation, Virginia Keft brings together eucalyptus bark, fibre, silk, bronze and timber to reflect relationships between people and Country, with madjam (flying foxes) a recurring presence. Drawing on her Muruwari cultural knowledge and lived experience, her practice centres truth-telling, ecological care and the enduring presence of Country.
Recent exhibitions include the 2025 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (2025–26), The Familiar in the Foreign at Galerie Handwerk, Munich, Germany (2025), and solo exhibitions at Firstdraft (2024) and Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf (2024). Her installation Nuwa ganda (Look up) received the People’s Choice Award at Sculpture in the Gardens, Wollongong (2025).
Keft was a finalist for the 2026 Create NSW and Artspace Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging) and was shortlisted for the Koori Mail Indigenous Art Award. Her recent awards include the Stanthorpe Art Prize (2024), the Du Rietz Art Award (2024) and the Grace Cossington Smith Art Award (2024). She was also awarded the First Nations Award at the M16 Artspace Drawing Prize (2023), the Muru Award at Hidden: Rookwood Sculptures (2023) and the yapang Emerging Art Prize (2023).
Public art commissions include Madjam nguna, a permanent bronze artwork at Mindarie Park, Lane Cove, and Hanging Around on Gadigal Country at Newtown ArtSeat.
Her work is held in public and private collections in Australia and internationally, including Artbank.
Keft is the Producer, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Australia, where she leads bangawarra Art Yarns for older and Elder mob. She received a 2025–26 Create NSW Creative Nations grant for her Picket Fence Project and is a board member of Firstdraft.
She holds a Doctor of Philosophy (University Medal), a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Distinction) and a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) from the University of Wollongong.
In this video, Keft reflects on how observing flying foxes on Dharawal Country inspired her practice. She discusses the challenges of navigating public art commissions and how NAVA’s Code of Practice helps her negotiate contracts, fees and intellectual property across different areas of her work.
Video production by Atypical, 2026.
Photo by Anthony Rigby-Smith, 2026.
ID: Photo of Virginia Keft sitting in her studio. She is wearing colourful pants, and a black top. She is smiling and her hand is at her ear, holding a red died raffia hand woven round earring. In the background is a blue wall, large window and shelves with books, materials and three flying fox artworks.
About NAVA
The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) is a Membership organisation that brings together the many voices of the contemporary arts sector to improve fundamental conditions of work and practice. We do this through advocacy, education and the Code of Practice.
