Dr Michelle Antoinette is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Art History and Theory, and Course Director for the Bachelor of Art History and Curating programme at the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture at Monash University. She currently lives and works on Boon Wurrung country, nearby Naarm/Melbourne. Her teaching in art and curatorial studies is situated within practices of decolonising art’s histories, while her research focuses on modern and contemporary Asian art histories, especially contemporary art histories of Southeast Asia and their intersections with globalisation. Her Asia interests extend beyond Asia’s geographical borders to encompass the art of Asian diasporas and their contributions to national and transnational art histories, including Asian-Australian artists.
Michelle previously held research and teaching positions at the Australian National University, Canberra, where she was Convenor and Lecturer for courses on Asian and Pacific art and museums. She has held major Australian Research Council Fellowships researching developments in contemporary Asian art and museums: 'The Rise of New Cultural Networks in Asia in the Twenty-First Century' (DP1096041) and the ARC DECRA project ‘Asian Art Publics’ (2017–20 grant no DE170100455).
Her significant publications include Reworlding Art History: Encounters with Contemporary Southeast Asian Art after 1990 (Brill | Rodopi, 2015) and with Caroline Turner, Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions: Connectivities and World-making (ANU Press, 2014). In 2019, with Wulan Dirgantoro, she co-curated the exhibition Shaping Geographies: Art, Woman, Southeast Asia, which was held in Singapore and included several Asian-Australian women artists. In 2020, she was co-editor with Francis Maravillas for the special issue of World Art, 'Contemporary art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia' which was the precursor for the major international symposium Shifting Grounds, New Horizons: Thinking and doing contemporary Southeast Asian art now, held in November 2023.