Before "representation" became a corporate slogan, a few people were simply doing the work of it — one book, one wall, one hundred artists at a time.
The phenomenon that is CURVY began in Sydney, Australia, in 2003 as an annual book and exhibition series championing some of the most exciting female graphic artists and illustrators on earth. It collaborates with women from across the globe — from the art-and-design hotspots of Paris, London, New York, Sydney and Tokyo to the lesser-known but equally powerful creative centres of Mexico, Moscow, Norway, Malta, Israel and Indonesia.
One hundred women a year
Each annual publication shines a spotlight on 100 established and emerging female artists, building on the momentum of the previous years to create a rolling wave of creative and social energy. The effect compounds: every edition is both a snapshot and an argument, a reminder of how much talent goes unseen simply because nobody thought to gather it in one place.
Athena Nochua in Adelaide
The Adelaide chapter, Athena Nochua, was a stirring group exhibition rejoicing in the talents of female artists from Australia and around the world. A line-up of 24 powerful graphic artists and illustrators filled the cosy confines of Espionage Gallery in South Australia, opening on Thursday 13 June.
The view from 2026
Two decades on from CURVY's first issue, the conversation it started has been absorbed into the mainstream — festivals, grants and platforms now exist to do what a single book once did alone. But the model still teaches something: that visibility is not a press release, it is a practice you repeat, year after year, until the absence you were correcting stops being normal. CURVY did the unglamorous, cumulative work. The wave it set going has not stopped.