At Studio Shonae, our work is driven by a commitment to cultural integrity and community-led storytelling. We partner with artists, institutions, and organisations to create platforms that celebrate First Nations creativity, expand opportunities, and generate meaningful cultural, social, and economic impact.

“I think it’s important to have spaces that cater to and reflect my community and the diversity of our storytelling. We have an ancient culture, but we are also evolving and innovating in new and exciting ways – it’s critical for me to reflect this in my work.”

Shonae Hobson is a Southern Kaantju, Umpila, and Kuuku Ya’u woman from Coen, Cape York Peninsula. She is an independent curator and writer specialising in First Nations art, fashion, and design. Her curatorial practice foregrounds community-led storytelling. She is particularly interested in advancing the representation of Indigenous fashion and textiles within national and international museum contexts.

Hobson has held curatorial positions at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and Bendigo Art Gallery (BAG), where she developed exhibitions that have shaped national conversations around Indigenous fashion and contemporary art. At Bendigo she curated Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion (2020–21), the first major survey of Indigenous Australian fashion, which brought together more than seventy artists and designers from across the country.

During her tenure at the NGV (2021–2023), she established the Indigenous Fashion Commission, a biannual initiative that supports First Nations designers and textile practitioners to create new work for the Gallery’s permanent collection. Currently, Hobson is consultant curator at Cairns Art Gallery (CAG), where she has developed a series of exhibitions including Life on the River: Naomi Hobson (2024), Skinship: Collection in Focus (2025) and Brush: Women Painters from the Bush (forthcoming 2026).

Her writing has been published in catalogues, art journals and major fashion media. She is the author of Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion (2020) and What’s on Your Mind? Josh Muir (2019), and co-author of Desert Lines: Batik from Central Australia (2019). Her essays and profiles have appeared in Vogue Australia, Harper’s Bazaar and Art Guide Australia, as well as institutional publications such as NGV Triennial (2023–24), New Australian Printmaking (2022) and Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection (2022).

Hobson was awarded the Bob and June Prickett Churchill Fellowship (2025) to research global Indigenous fashion collections in museums and galleries across the UK, USA and Canada, examining how institutions internationally collect, curate and present Indigenous fashion. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology and Art History) from the University of Melbourne (2018).